The Colorado Avalanche lost to the Ottawa Senators 4-2 on Saturday night. It didn’t really matter. The Senators are going into the playoffs. The Avalanche are going to finish last in the NHL by a decent margin. (At the time of writing, 15 points separated Colorado from the next lowest team, the Arizona Coyotes.)
In other words, the Avs vs. Sens game was a meaningless one. They’re all meaningless for Colorado. The most the Avalanche can hope to do standings-wise is play spoiler to playoff-bound teams.
Right now players have to find their own reason to push toward winning.