This first month of the season was never going to be pretty.
The overwhelming sentiment: They just need to hang on until they get some bodies back.
Well, they've at least done that.
Jared Bednar looks at seasons in 10-game increments. On Monday, after a 5-2 loss to the Chicago Blackhawks at Ball Arena, the Avalanche reached the 10-game point of the season. Colorado's record?
Five wins, five losses.
"There's a little bit of a roller coaster, right?" Bednar said after. "There's lots to like. The finish (Monday) of it stings, but it is what it is."
They've been down Artturi Lehkonen, Valeri Nichushkin, and Gabriel Landeskog, but one game into the season they lost Jonathan Drouin. No one knows what Landeskog is at this point in his career, but the other three make up 75% of Colorado's top six wingers. Not an ideal way to start the year.
And it might get even tougher from here.
Ross Colton, who has stepped up in a big way, is the next forward to hit the injury list. He left the arena Monday in a walking boot after blocking a shot and Bednar said he will "miss some time." Just when it seemed like the Avalanche might be getting some bodies back, another one goes down. That just may be how this season goes.
It's been ugly, but the team has made it work through 10 games. Kind of.
Casey Mittelstadt, brought in at the deadline last year to play behind Nathan MacKinnon, has been better than advertised. With 13 points in 10 games, he's held up his end of the bargain, and if he could get some legitimate scoring wingers, he could do even more damage.
It also helps that their stars, at least offensively, have been stars. Cale Makar, Nathan MacKinnon and Mikko Rantanen entered Monday in the top 10 in scoring in the NHL. They've had some issues defensively, but their offense has kept the team afloat.
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With Alexandar Georgiev's struggles in net, Justus Annunen helped steer the ship in the right direction, rattling off four consecutive wins to get the team to .500. Georgiev wasn't bad on Monday, but he wasn't great, either. When Tampa Bay comes to town Wednesday, it'll likely be Annunen in net again.
There's a chance the Avalanche get Lehkonen and Drouin back relatively soon, but until then, ugly hockey might be here to stay. Monday might have been their ugliest game to date, but looking at the picture, they've accomplished their goal of keeping their head above water through 10 games.
Whether they'll be able to sustain it just a little bit longer until some of the cavalry returns is the real question.
Blackhawks 5, Avalanche 2
What happened: Chicago scored three goals in the opening period of the game and locked it down the rest of the night.
What went right: Nothing? Colorado looked like it had no legs from puck drop, and it didn't get better as the game went on. The Avs had a brief burst late in the third, but any momentum they had was killed by a Miles Wood penalty.
What went wrong: If nothing went right, pretty much everything went wrong. The team couldn't connect two consecutive passes most of the night and looked to have nothing in the tank after playing the night before.
"We were no good," Bednar said.
Between the pipes: Alexandar Georgiev got back in the net after a week off, stopping 21 of 24 shots.
"I thought he was good," Bednar said of his netminder.
What's next: Colorado hosts Tampa Bay Lightning at 7 p.m. Wednesday.
