Home not so sweet for Avalanche with Islanders coming to town

Snow and cold temperatures hit Colorado on Wednesday, which simply mirrors the mood around the Avalanche locker room.

The ice-cold Avalanche (12-25-1) haven't had much success this season and things aren't looking up for the once-proud franchise. Colorado has lost five in a row and 10 of their last 11 games. They're on a 10-game winless streak at home, a place they haven't prevailed since Nov. 14.

They hope to change that when they play the New York Islanders on Friday night, but it will take a big change in the players' mindset.

"It's no doubt that we're pressing and battling right now," Jarome Iginla told the Denver Post after the 4-1 loss at Calgary on Wednesday night. "We have a lot of creative guys and now we're getting to where it kind of feels like we played trying not to make a mistake. That's what happens when you're not going. It's the wrong mindset. We're working on it.

"We're a young team overall and it's a learning experience for the young guys. We're double-clutching and the confidence is a little bit down."

The Islanders (15-15-6) are also struggling to meet expectations this season. New York is last in the Metropolitan Division, which currently has the top three teams -- in terms of points -- in the NHL.

Islanders haven't played since beating the Jets 6-2 in Winnipeg on Saturday and should be fresh for Friday's game. They hope it's the start of a push to climb in the standings.

"Early on, we got behind the eight ball a bit," defenseman Travis Hamonic told Newsday. "Some third periods, we maybe win half of those, we're in the wild-card spot possibly. If you can win a couple in a row, you're possibly back in the conversation."

The Islanders have held third-period leads in 32 of their 36 games this season but haven't been able to close out games.

"I think if you ask everybody in this room, everyone's disappointed individually as well," center John Tavares told Newsday. "For myself, I can certainly say I haven't been at a consistent level, the standards I have for myself and I've always tried to improve on those. It's been really up and down for our team and it starts to reflect on guys individually."

Colorado's only win since Dec. 11 was at Chicago on Dec. 23. Since then they've allowed 18 goals in three home games and have struggled to score.

Wednesday they got a meaningless goal with 1:25 left to avoid a shutout. They were once again plagued by lack of discipline and took too many penalties.

"We made stupid mistakes again," Joe Colborne told the Denver Post. "We keep talking about it and we don't execute. We shoot ourselves in the foot by taking penalties. It's frustrating."

The Avalanche haven't blown up the roster but they did tinker with it. On Thursday they claimed forward Matt Nieto off waivers from San Jose. With 23 players already on the roster, Colorado will have to make a move if it wants to keep Nieto in Denver.

With Semyon Varlamov battling a groin injury there are three goaltenders on the roster, so if he can suit up Friday it would mean Jeremy Smith would probably be sent to the AHL.

Nieto may help but he can't save the franchise. The turnaround has to come from the core players, who haven't played well enough to prevent a total collapse over the last seven weeks.

"We have to come together as a team," captain Gabriel Landeskog told HockeyBuzz.com. "I've said it all along, we lose as a team and we win as a team. If you start getting away from that, you're in deep trouble. So we have to make sure that we stay together and talk about it and dig our way out of it."