Colorado Avalanche

For the second week in a row, one of the top players on the Colorado Avalanche went off during his postgame comments. This time, it was directed at some of his teammates.

A visibly agitated Devon Toews did not hold back his feelings Tuesday night after the Avalanche lost 3-2 in Chicago to the NHL’s last-place team. Speaking to Jesse Montano of Guerilla Sports, Toews used a variation of frustrated five times and self-awareness four times in an interview that lasted a little more than two minutes.

“It’s self-awareness. We need guys that know how to play in our system, know how to play our game and know what it takes,” Toews told Montano. “We’ve got some guys in here … I think we’ve got some guys who think they’re playing well and they’re kidding themselves at this point.

“It’s frustrating to play out there when you’ve got guys who think they’re playing well and they’re doing things where you have no idea what play they’re going to make or where they’re going to be on the ice. It’s tough to play in this league when you don’t know where your teammates are going to be. That’s where a lot of the frustration stems from.”

The Avalanche allowed two goals on the Chicago’s first three shots of the game. Coach Jared Bednar noted there were critical mistakes on each play. Blackhawks rookie Connor Bedard stole the puck from defenseman Bowen Byram as he tried to exit the Colorado zone to help set up the first goal.

Ryan Donato chipped the puck past two Avs defensemen — Toews and Jack Johnson — during a routine-looking breakout play that started behind the Chicago net, and that set up Bedard for a 2-on-1 play with Lukas Reichel on the second goal.

Chicago’s game-winning goal was another structural breakdown when Tyler Johnson got behind all four of Colorado’s penalty killers for an easy tap-in goal in the third period. Both Bednar and Toews weren’t particularly upset with the club’s start beyond those couple of moments, but it was the rest of the game when the Avalanche did not separate from the 32nd-place team that really bothered both of them.

“It’s starting to become a broken record, but I thought we shot ourselves in the foot a couple times tonight,” Bednar said to the assembled media after the game. “The second period was probably my least favorite, and that was mostly turnovers by us that led to their scoring chances against. (Alexandar Georgiev) had a great period.

“The reality is we didn’t score a five-on-five goal tonight. We had some good chances and didn’t capitalize. I still think we could have made it a lot harder on them defensively and part of that was our mismanagement of the puck.”

Toews did not call out anyone specifically, but these were some of the harshest comments any player has made about his team or his teammates in the NHL all season. The Avs did not have star defenseman Cale Makar for the third straight game, along with three other regulars. But Chicago was missing a handful of players as well.

Last week, Mikko Rantanen made headlines by ripping Artturi Lehkonen’s father for comments he made about Rantanen in the Finnish media. This was a different deal.

How the Avs’ leadership core works without captain Gabriel Landeskog in the lineup has been an evolving situation. Toews told The Denver Post earlier this month that the Avs absolutely miss Landeskog but “… it has helped a lot of guys in this room grow and find their voice and work toward being a leader and a voice for the team.”

This certainly looks like an example where Toews is trying to do just that. While the Avs are still tied for first place in the Central Division with 40 points, they are third in points percentage behind Dallas and Winnipeg, are 10th in the NHL overall in points percentage and have lost seven of the past 11 games (4-5-2).

“It’s self-awareness of knowing the situation and knowing the way the game is trending,” Toews said to Montano. “We have guys that are going out against our structure and doing things we don’t do as a team. That’s what is frustrating. When you have 20 guys in here that are working towards the same goal and have the same goal in mind, it is fun to play. That’s how you win games in this league. When you have 14 guys that are playing to the structure and six that aren’t, it’s really tough to win in this league. It doesn’t take many guys to go against the way your team wants to play in order to lose a game.

“Our self-awareness of knowing when we’re playing well and when we’re not is just not there. We don’t have the self-awareness of what it takes to win as a team and what it takes as an individual to compete and play your best right now. It’s frustrating when as a collective, you’re not pulling for the same goal.”