The first sign that something wasn’t right came a few minutes after the puck dropped at 1 p.m. A special weekday matinee on Martin Luther King Jr. Day should have been a treat.
Instead, the Avs operated with the urgency of Eeyore. And the crowd wasn’t exactly buzzing either. For long stretches, the only sound was sticks clicking the ice. Close your eyes and it was hard to tell if this was Ball Arena or a Family Sports Center practice.
“You get the pom poms out. You are a cheerleader,” said coach Jared Bednar when asked how to address the lack of energy.