DENVER — After the 3-0 loss to Arizona Saturday night, head coach Jared Bednar explained that it's going to take a little longer to figure out how to win in their predicament, but it doesn't seem like the team is trending in the right direction.
In fact, they don't seem to be listening to any message he or any other leader is preaching in the locker room.
While the sky isn't falling after a four-loss skid, this is the fourth-straight without only Mikko Rantenen and the third-straight without both him and Gabriel Landeskog. If they lose another one or two without them, you may start seeing the rest of the team do their best "Dead Poets Society" rendition.
The team needs a leader, and slapping another "A" on the chest of the next man up, just isn't cutting it.
It's a young team littered with potential talent, all surrounding a silent assassin in Nathan MacKinnon. But even he doesn't appear to be leading this team in anything other than points (his point streak, by the way, halted at 13 in the shutout Saturday).
It also seems the depth we heard about all off-season is mere fallacy. The Avalanche scored 4.3 points per game with both Landeskog and Rantenen on the ice, and has since only scored 1.3 in three games without both.
This will be a long November and an even longer December if the team can't find a way to galvanize and win without only two of its players, two all-stars, albeit.
If we don't see someone step up in the next game or two, I may stand on my desk and shout "oh captain, my captain" until someone truly earns that patch on his chest.