It's Come to Jeebus Time for the Avalanche

After Wednesday's disappointing loss to the Islanders, some were ready to push the panic button on the Avalanche. I thought it was unnecessary. One disappointing loss to a sub .500 team isn't reason to panic. After tonight's sad, sad loss to the Caroline Hurricanes, I'm ready to jump on the bandwagon. It's a strange looking bandwagon. It looks like a bus with wobbly wheels. They could fall off at any time.

Now what could cause a team, who is unexpectedly in the middle of division and playoff position battles, to lose to the worst team in the league?

• Over-Coaching? Liles needs to do less of this. Wolski needs to do more of that. Stastny needs to do more of this. I understand that this is what a coach is paid to do, but is Sacco overdoing it? Does it seem like players are thinking too much? And what's with all the line juggling? We're halfway through the season and either I REALLY don't pay attention well or the Avalanche don't have any thing close to set lines.
  
• Lack of Leadership? Mr. Jordan at Mile High Mayhem may be on to something with his "Are Certain Avs Lacking Something?" post. Our captains are Foote, Stastny and Hejduk. I can see Stastny and Hejduk as leaders on their lines and I can see Foote being comfortably in charge of defensemen, but I have a hard time seeing them as team leaders. They all seem to have that blue-collar, I-come-to-work-and-do-my-job-well kind of attitude. I like them in those roles, it's just that they're not leadership roles.
  
• Inexperience? When 24 year old Paul Stastny is considered one of the salty veterans, you have a young team. 9 players on the Avalanche's active roster have 1 year or less of experience. I'm not really sure how inexperience plays into it, but it's there somehow. Maybe it's mental fatigue with players not used to playing this long of a season. Maybe players aren't used to having to study their opponents as much.
  

Regardless of the reason for these colossal let-downs, the next 2 weeks are going to be a turning point for the Avalanche. Just because I'm on the panic bandwagon doesn't mean I've given up hope, far from it. This is when the Avs are going to show us what kind of team we're going to see for the rest of the season. Do they pull it together or completely fall apart? It's try-out time for any player who wants to wear a "C" on their unipron in the future.