This season is as ugly as Zanon’s beard. Mandatory Credit: Sergei Belski-USA TODAY Sports

March will be remembered as the month in which the Avalanche fell apart during the 2013 season. Unfortunately, the team went 4-10-1. Three of the wins the team did manage to earn were pretty spectacular, but you don’t earn extra points because you ended a historic streak, or because you won the game with 0.3 seconds left in overtime, or because your goalie bailed you out and stopped over 30 shots in a 61 minute shutout effort. Consistency is rewarded, rather than melodrama in this league, which is as it should be.

So what really went wrong this month? Well, the defense was the biggest problem. As a team, the Avs allow more shots than anyone else. They have a tendency to try and get fancy in their own zone, rather than just clearing the puck out. Poor passing, passing without looking to ensure that the player is open (or even there), and the ensuing amount of time spent in the zone all create disasters, and were all a part of the Avs’ formula this season, and in this month particularly. It has hurt that Ryan Wilson, one of the team’s top defenders, only played in two and a half games this month (re-spraining an already sprained ankle twice). Erik Johnson has returned from his concussion, and he’s played well lately, but it obviously took a couple of games for him to get back to normal. Ryan O’Byrne and Greg Zanon are in the midst of what have to be the worst seasons of their careers. Shane O’Brien has been scratched too many times by a wacky Sacco. Tyson Barrie hasn’t received the support a rookie defenseman should. To put it simply, the Colorado blueline has been a tangled, hairy mess. Another problem in the month of March was that secondary scoring really seemed to dry up. Which means that even though P.A. Parenteau went crazy with points, and Duchene, O’Reilly, and Landeskog were solid, no one else was really scoring.

It was dissapointing to see this happen to the team (again) in the second half of the season. I will, however, give them kudos for holding each other accountable, and not making the situation worse with the blame game, or by pushing it on coaches.

After this month, there’s not as much to look forward to in April as there might have been. There will be 14 games in April (four sets of back to backs), and these look likely to be the last of the season. The last two games the Avs have actually played really well in, even though they only earned one win. I think it’s important (and that the players know this) to win as many games as possible. Even if the Avs aren’t in the top eight at the end of the season, they can really affect who is. It’s not a glamorous role, and it’s not fun to be a spoiler. Still, misery loves company, and it’d be nice if the Avs could bring some misery to other teams.

Semyon Varlamov appeared to really lose confidence in the month of March, but his game yesterday was splendid. For his sake (for a I fear too many more losses will ruin his potential forever), I hope the team can get it together, and perform at least to an average record level.

Mar 28, 2013; Vancouver, British Columbia, CANADA; Colorado Avalanche left wing Cody McLeod (55) during the second period against the Vancouver Canucks at Rogers Arena. Mandatory Credit: Anne-Marie Sorvin-USA TODAY Sports

The Colorado Avalanche recently released a brand new Avalanche application (one version for iPhone and one for Android). I have an android, so I can only review that one.

First, I was just happy when I read that the team had created an app and would be releasing it. The Avalanche sometimes seem stuck in the old days. They don’t market their players and their players’ personalities as well as other teams. This is the first season in which they have consistently posted post-practice and post-game interviews, even if the team loses. Teams like the Penguins and the Blackhawks marketed all of their young talent, and that helped them to build their fanbase, even before they won their most recent Cups.

So, I was hopeful. I wasn’t sure what they would have put together, but I was optimistic that this could offer more to fans. The app surpassed my expectations, and I know a lot of other fans have said that, comparatively to other NHL team apps, this is one of the best.

The Updates-When the app is initially installed, all of the possible updates are set to “on”. This means that 10 minutes before the game, at the end of each period, and after each goal, when there are fan promotions/game day promotions, a little Avs logo appears on the update bar. If you don’t want all of those updates (they can be pesky if you’re at the game, or if you’re at work), simply hit your menu button, scroll down to “Settings”, pick “In Game Preferences” and/or “Team Alerts” and turn off that which you don’t want to pop up.

The Homepage-This is set to show either:

• The pregame information-the Avs’ official pregame report, a few key players matched up against each other, an option to buy tickets, etc.
• The postgame information-the boxscore,  Avs’ recap of the game, the play-by-play of all the events on the ice, individual player statistics.

Players-Under the menu, hit players. There is a list of players. If you click on one of them (say, Semyon Varlamov), you can scroll through a couple of pictures, click on the “i” (basically everything that’s under his bio on the Avs’ roster page), or click on “stats” to read his career statistics and this season’s statistics. (They’re a little limited, especially for the goalie, but helpful if you need to win a bet at the bar that Semyon Varlamov has played over 8,000 minutes in the NHL.)

News-Under the menu, a list which includes links to all news articles posted on the Avs’ site.

Schedule- Under the menu, a monthly look at the Avs. Pretty much the same widget that’s on the Avs’ site.

Standings-Under the menu, once again, this is similar to the widget on the Avs’ site.

Video-If you hit either your menu button, or the app’s specific menu button, you can scroll down to videos and click on that. That app has about 10 videos available (right now a couple about Hejduk’s 1,000th game, and then the last few post-practice or post-game interviews).

Photos-Go to the menu, go down to either Photos or Instagram. Under Photos, you’ll find the galleries the Avs post (some under “The Last 7 days” and about 30 or 40 under “Older”). If you go to Instagram, you’ll be led to a gallery that includes fan photos with the hashtag #coloradoavalanche as well as the photos posted on the Avs official instagram account.

Sounds-Under the menu, Sounds takes you to goal calls and the Avs’ goal song. This section is still developing, as the “Interviews” section is empty, and the “Players’ iPod” just has one song under J.S. Giguere’s name (the song is unidentified right now, and I’m not how

Tickets-You can either hit Tickets or Seat Upgrade. Under Tickets, you can choose one of the next five games, and then you have the option to either buy on your phone, or call an Avs representative. I haven’t used Seat Upgrade yet, so I can’t say how that works. Sorry folks!

Overall, I’m really impressed with this application, and with the potential it holds to become even better.