The view from Denver

The Colorado Avalanche have a 1-10-1 record since Jan. 26, but they certainly didn’t quit yesterday, as they scored three goals in the last eight minutes to make the Kings sweat out a 4-3 victory. Here’s how the game was reported by the Denver Post, followed by some additional postgame quotes from the Avalanche locker room…

Three goals come too late as Avalanche aimless out of gate

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COACH JOE SACCO
(on the game…) “Penalties didn’t help our cause. We’re taking penalties because we’re making some mental errors. We made it close and we hung around and stuck it out till the end but we need to be better than that. We have to start games better, to put ourselves in a position so that we’re able to stay in the game for 60 minutes. Today we got behind and we started chasing the game after that.

“The team that wakes up first and is ready to go first is going to give themselves the best chance to win. We just need to be better, there’s no question. We can’t start games like that. It’s tough to play catch-up in this league.

“Anytime you have new players it takes a while to build chemistry, but that’s not why we’re at where we’re at. These guys have been nice additions to our team and they’re only going to get better as we move along. I’m excited to have these two players here and I think they’re going to make us a better team when it comes down to it.”

BRIAN ELLIOTT
(on the game…) “You never want to let in any goals, obviously, but we took a few too many penalties. You’ve just got to try to see as much as you can. We did a good job coming back. We’ve got to focus on that and know that we can score and have confidence that we can do it. We need to be a unit of five out there and I think we’ll have success.”

(on playing for Colorado…) “It’s a good group of guys, young guys, and I think it’s a good fit so far. We’re struggling right now and it’s tough to hang in there when we’re struggling but we just need to have a good attitude, come to the rink with a smile on our face and know that every day is a new day and know that we can do whatever we want with it.”

JOHN-MICHAEL LILES
(on the game…) “We just didn’t play. Obviously they’re a talented team, a big team, and they took it to us in our end for quite a bit of time. It’s not so much about making plays but about getting it in, getting the forecheck and when you do that, when we have our legs going, that’s when were effective. We most definitely weren’t effective in the first two periods.

(on the upcoming trade deadline…) “This time of year is always tough. When we’re in a rut like this, I think that anything can happen and that’s the nature of this business. I’ve said that lots of times, that it’s a performance-driven business. When a team isn’t performing, you search for answers and it’s the unfortunate part because you never want to see teammates go anywhere or friends go anywhere. What can I say? We’re not performing to where we need to be. That’s the bottom line.”