Colorado Avalanche Should Change Approach to Practices

The Colorado Avalanche should try a novel approach to practices to fight their way out of the slump they’re in.

The Colorado Avalanche have been in a slump. Well, they haven’t been losing in the last few days thanks to the All Star break and the bye week. However, prior to that, the Colorado have been in a slump since mid-December.

We’re just around the corner to February. That’s a long time to be on an up-and-down streak.

Thanks to a strong start, and the Central Division falling apart, the Avs are still in a playoff position at the time of writing. Unfortunately, that position is largely due to the dominance of the top line, and that’s untenable.

One of the problems the team has faced recently is the unreliability of their goal tending. We all thought we had a solid one-two punch in Semyon Varlamov and Philipp Grubauer. Unfortunately, both goalies seemed to hit a brick wall instead of act like a brick wall in the last few weeks.

There’s no easy answer to that conundrum, though I do explore the options here:

I don’t think that’s enough, though.

What I’ve been seeing — what we’ve all been seeing — is some sloppy play by the Avs players. They’re dropping their defensive assignments and all around playing too casually.

Well, a lot of the practices that I’ve seen are focused on addressing those issues. The players as a whole practice drills meant to hone their implementation of Jared Bednar’s systems.

Unfortunately, it seems to me that the team needs to get back to basics. It’s going to be difficult to implement any systems when you can’t even complete a tape-to-tape pass on a consistent basis.

Yes, I know all NHL players are the best of the best, and they don’t need to learn the basics. However, watching Avs games recently, it seems they need to re-focus on the basics. Let’s look at some ways the team can do that.

Omitting a Few Strength and Conditioning Sessions

Per the CBA, practices have to be scheduled at a “reasonable time.” During training camp, the team can only mandate three hours a day dedicated to training — 1.75 hours on the ice and 1.25 hours off the ice. It’s not specified in the CBA that regular season practices have to be run the same way, but let’s say they are.

So, teams have 1:15 minutes mandated that players must participate in off-ice activities during practice. This time can be taken up with strength and conditioning, team meetings, and/or video sessions.

The Colorado Avalanche probably only have around 22 more practices at most in the regular season. I don’t know how much of the off-ice time is dedicated specifically to strength and conditioning. However, the team does have a full-time strength and conditioning coach, Casey Bond, on staff.

I’m going to suggest a few of the up-coming strength and conditioning sessions can be omitted to free up some time.

Players know how to work out. It’s their responsibility in the off-season to stay in shape. Indeed, they can be suspended if they fail to make the conditioning numbers. Therefore, I don’t think too many off-ice sessions should be dedicated to strength and conditioning.

Instead, I’d like to see more of that time dedicated to video sessions and mentoring. These are good times for the players to meet with coaching and training staff to go over their specific needs. What’s more, in place of lifting weights, perhaps the players can work on some specific skills.

Casey Bond and the other coaches can still advise the players on what aspects of strength and conditioning they should focus on. I’m sure players can stay at the practice facility to use the equipment if they’d like. Heck, even the least-paid players earn six figures, meaning they can afford membership at the fanciest of gyms.

And the better-paid players can afford well-outfitted home gyms. Indeed, they can all afford personal trainers — in fact, most of them already have personal trainers for the off-season.

Bump up the Skills Coaching

Like I said, there’s no direct direction in the CBA as to how much ice time the team can mandate in the regular season. Even if the understanding is that it’s the same as for training camp, I’m not sure how loose an interpretation teams can give it.

I’m thinking about making time for skills coaching. As I noted in a couple other posts, the Colorado Avalanche hired a skills coach, Shawn Allard. He guides on-ice drills to practice specific basic skills. In the practice I attended, I saw Tyson Jost attacking these drills. He went on to show a bump in his skills — and in his production.

Here’s an example of one of Allard’s drills:

As you can see, it’s not exactly basic, but it’s targeting some specific skills.

I explored this idea in a previous post. However, I think the team could benefit from holding these skills drills on a more consistent basis. The practice I attended was an optional one. I don’t think the team can hold these optional practices on a mandated off day, nor do I think they should. Players need to rest same as anyone.

However, I don’t see why Allard can’t set up after regular practices for optional skills development. Indeed, even if the Avs are adhering to the 1:45 of allowed ice time, practices usually only run one hour.

Leave it up to the players to decide if they want to work on these skills. Indeed, many players stay late anyway to work on specific skills. Why not give them a little better resource in the form of Allard and his equipment for their training?

Team-Building Activities

More from Mile High Sticking

The Colorado Avalanche are a notoriously tight group. They seem to really like each other and have no problem playing for each other. However, stress can make you lash out at even the closest people in your life.

And, when you’re an elite competitor, losing can cause a lot of stress.

The team already seem to have a lot of fun at practices. People like captain Gabriel Landeskog and Mikko Rantanen lighten the mood with their antics. So, this suggestion isn’t based so much in changing practice.

A couple years ago, the Avs players went on a team-building excursion in Vail that had them participating in those trust-building activities. Such activities might be a little tricky to plan right now.

However, the team does have an upcoming East Coast road trip — Washing DC, New York, and Boston. Perhaps they can go on an excursion together in one of those cities. They did so earlier in the year during the Dad’s Trip, when they went to the Country Music Hall of Fame in Nashville.

Perhaps another such trip will be a good way to relieve the stress and help them get their mojo back.

When fans and pundits look for ways to help a struggling team, they usually look to changes in the roster. I’m not discounting such moves, especially with the Trade Deadline just one month away.

However, in the salary cap era, you can’t just buy a winning team. You have to build a solid team through the draft, player development, and systems.

For the Colorado Avalanche right now, that also looks like getting back to basics. Give the players some one-on-one help, provide them with extra resources for skills training, and let them relax together as a team.

Such a novel approach — which, frankly, isn’t all that novel — can’t be any worse than maintaining the status quo.