Colorado Avalanche

MacKinnon looks to end slump; homecoming for 'Canes Slavin March 7, 2017, 5:04 PM ET [0 Comments] Rick Sadowski  Colorado Avalanche Blogger • Avalanche Insider • RSS • Archive • CONTACT

Nathan MacKinnon and the Avalanche will attempt to extract their offense from hibernation Tuesday when they face Carolina at the Pepsi Center.

Here are the GAME NOTES. 

MacKinnon has gone 15 games without a goal -- he has one in the past 24 games -- and the Avalanche have scored two goals during a four-game losing streak and 20 goals while going 2-11-1 in the past 14.

Matt Duchene has gone seven games without a point and he has one goal in the past 21 games. Tyson Barrie has two goals in the past 19 and Mikko Rantanen has gone six without a goal.

Of the so-called "core" players -- we'll give Erik Johnson a pass because he missed so much time with his broken leg -- Gabriel Landeskog has the hot hand with three goals in five games.

"The top guys have to be the best players," MacKinnon said after the morning skate. "There are some games where Dutchy's going and I'm not going, or I'm going and either Dutchy or Mikko ... we're never really in synch. All of us have to be good every night. We have 18 games left and, we've had a couple meetings and we're getting challenged to be better. We get paid the money we do and we haven't been good enough. It sucks.

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"Scoring goals is fun and when you don't and you lose, it's tough. I think getting a lead would help. You play catch-up and teams just shut you down, especially good teams like St. Louis and even tonight, Carolina's good defensively, so we've got to get the lead."

MacKinnon said the challenge to be better has come from coaches and teammates. The Avalanche are averaging an NHL-worst 1.9 goals per game and have been shut out 11 times.

"We play the most, we're with each other on the ice," he said. "I'm embarrassed by how many goals we have this season. You feel like you're banging your head against the wall a lot of nights, but you can't be too negative. We're fortunate with what we do and we have to try and be the best every night."

MacKinnon said he hasn't been taking enough shots or been aggressive enough. He leads the team in scoring with 42 points (12 goals, 30 assists) and has eight assists during the 15-game goal drought.

"We need to get our power play going (0-for-23 past 10 games), that's a big reason why we don't score," MacKinnon said. "The PP and special teams ... we take a lot of penalties early. I think we've taken three or four in two straight games in the first period. It's tough to rebound from that."

It doesn't help that the Avalanche (17-44-3) have been out of the playoff hunt for so long. Their 37 points are 16 behind Arizona, which has the second-worst record in the league.

"When you're in last place, for myself I like playing in big games," MacKinnon said. "There's always pressure, but for us, we want to win but it's not like 'This is a big win, it'll get us back in the playoff mix.' I personally have never been in this situation. I don't think a lot of guys have been in this situation. 

"It's a good learning experience. Hopefully we can win and we'll appreciate it more after being on the bottom."

Coach Jared Bednar said the team's top players need to try to be "difference makers every shift," so they aren't taking shifts off and to make sure that "the frustrations of the team don't overlap into their individual game."

Bednar said MacKinnon's game has been "OK, but not consistent enough" to where he's creating as much as he was previously. The same goes for Duchene.

"Focus on winning your matchups every single night and take care of their individual lines is a good approach for those guys," Bednar said. "They have the ability to be the difference makers for us and we need them to be. Our bottom six guys have done a better job of tying their matchups and getting on the board more often than we did in the first part of the year, and now we need (the top players) to take over and push us over the top."

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Hurricanes defenseman Jaccob Slavin, who grew up in Erie, Colo., will play his first game at Pepsi Center as an NHL player. He expects to have plenty of family members and friends in attendance.

"I'm super excited to be back home," he said. "Hopefully I have acclimated to the altitude. There should be a lot of familiar faces out there. I watched some games here growing up and played some peewee here, so I'm definitely familiar with the building, but it will be different playing in an NHL game. It's going to be a blast."

The 6-feet-2, 205-pound Slavin, 22, was Carolina's fourth-round pick (No. 120) in the 2012 NHL draft. He played parts of three seasons with the Chicago Steel in the USHL and two years at Colorado College. He played 14 games last season with the Charlotte Checkers of the AHL and finished with two goals, 18 assists and a plus-1 rating in 63 games with the Hurricanes.

Slavin has developed into one of the league's top young defensemen this season with two goals, 21 assists and a plus-14 rating in 62 games. 

The Hurricanes (26-26-10) are nine points behind the New York Islanders for the second wild card playoff spot in the Eastern Conference with 20 games remaining.

"We just have to keep stockpiling the points here and hopefully we can make something happen," he said. 

The Avalanche lineup:

FORWARDS
Gabriel Landeskog -- Nathan MacKinnon -- Rene Bourque 
Sven Andrighetto -- Matt Duchene -- Mikko Rantanen
John Mitchell -- J.T. Compher -- Blake Comeau
Mikhail Grigorenko -- Carl Soderberg -- Matt Nieto

DEFENSE
Mark Barberio -- Erik Johnson
Fedor Tyutin -- Tyson Barrie
Francois Beauchemin -- Patrick Wiercioch

GOALIES
Calvin Pickard
Jeremy Smith[/size]