Colorado defenseman Cale Makar said the team has lacked detail in its game and needs to tighten up to win games. The Colorado Avalanche shut out the Chicago Blackhawks 5-0 just four days ago at the United Center but they're focused on cleaning up mistakes ahead of a rematch at Ball Arena. "I think it's all about ourselves, to be completely honest with you. We got to make sure that we keep dialing up details," Cale Makar said. "We get 20 games left here. So regardless of win loss right now we got to make sure our details are tight. And that's something that's been lacking a little bit. So for us, I think the results will speak for themselves when we start playing with the right details." The Avs lost 5-1 to the Predators on Saturday in Nashville and struggle to find consistency in their game. It's more important as the season winds down with fewer games before the playoffs for the Avalanche to get into a rhythm. "We just got to stick to our game. You know, obviously the end of the road trip didn't go as planned. Not a great game on our part by any means. But it's getting back to what gives us success. Get back to the details playing within our structure," Logan O'Connor said. "I think this time of year we expect a lot from ourselves and it's now building the right template to roll it over into playoffs. It's not, you know, flipping the switch from day one to playoffs. You got to sort of start building it. We've tried to build it all year, but now it's even more critical to do that." Although the Avalanche beat the Blackhawks just last week, they are prepared to face a team with a heightened purpose for a comeback victory. "You have to manage the puck against them. If you turn it over in the neutral zone, they like to get on the quick attack and they're a good transition team," Zach Parise said. "So I think for us, it's in all three zones — especially the neutral zone — the offensive zone manage the puck well." The Avs head coach said his team is zeroed in on fixing repeated mistakes to get to a solid, structured game and continue that — no matter who their opponent is. "We looked and dug into the Nashville game so we feel a lot of the work down the stretch is going to be about us again. It starts out that way and then you start looking at opponents and we're always going to break down the opponent to a certain extent, but we have some things that we need to work on," Bednar said. "The game in Chicago was a really nice game from us on the defensive side of things and suppressing scoring chances and making sure our checking game was in order. Started Nashville the same way — that we didn't do enough on the offensive side of things, so we dug into that a little bit here this morning." RECENT COLORADO AVALANCHE ARTICLES 'We win and lose as a team': Bowen Byram defends teammate after loss [https://thehockeynews.com/nhl/colorado-avalanche/players/we-win-and-lose-as-a-team-bowen-byram-defends-teammate-after-loss] 'Check those 3 boxes for our team, it usually leads to success': Avalanche show solid effort in 5-1 win over Stars [https://thehockeynews.com/nhl/colorado-avalanche/game-day/avalanche-show-solid-effort-in-5-1-win-over-stars] MacKinnon notches his second 100-point season of his career [https://thehockeynews.com/nhl/colorado-avalanche/latest-news/mackinnon-notches-his-second-100-point-season-of-his-career]
