Colorado's poor defensive play contributed to its loss to the Central Division-leading rival.

The Avalanche broke down defensively against the Dallas Stars on Sunday which led to a frustrating 7-4 loss. Rather than harping on the "dumb things" the team did — as head coach Jared Bednar called them — it used those mistakes as examples of what not to do and what to fix ahead of the playoffs. 

"We're just not defending to the level you're going to need to, you know come four or five games from now," Andrew Cogliano said. "The teams you're going to play in the playoffs, the teams in the West, they all defend well — it's tough to create offense on them. In order to win games, you're going to need to play your best defensive game and let the offense come from there."

The Avs held a long meeting before they hit the ice for practice on Monday to go over video and pinpoint the "absurd, uncharacteristic" plays that cost them two points. That game was compared to others when they played strong on defense. 

"We see the difference and we see the results," Jonathan Drouin said. "We even create more offense when we're playing well defensively — we create more chances, more odd man rushes."

Bednar nor his players made excuses for the loss but were aware of what went wrong. The Avs coach clarified why it is important for his team to understand what mishaps cost scoring chances so it does not continue to make them. 

"There are some things that we really wanted to look at and things that we have to improve upon for the playoffs, you know, and for this stretch run like as early as tomorrow," Bednar said after practice Monday. "Some of it is, you know, just getting clear on it and watching it and getting committed to what it takes to have success. Yeah, we looked at it all. I think all the guys understand it and we're ready to move forward."  

The Avalanche learned from their misfortune, put it behind them and are prepared to take on the Minnesota Wild Tuesday night. 

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