Shoddy Defense Collapsing Down the Stretch for the Colorado Avalanche

The naysayers may get their happy ending after all.

The collapse may have finally begun. With 10 games left in the regular season, the Colorado Avalanche, once poised to take the Northwest Division title, find themselves sitting in seventh place in the Western Conference, only five points ahead of ninth place Calgary.

In a season where the talk of the town has been the squad's young talent, very little of that talent has been on the blue line. The defense is a dinosaur squad—the Achilles' heel of the Avalanche from game one, and has somehow managed to get worse recently. Colorado has allowed 14 goals in the past four games, including an embarrassing win (thanks to Craig Anderson's heroics) where they allowed 51 shots against Dallas.

Foot speed is a big reason why they've been so ineffective. Adam Foote and Scott Hannan have always been slow, Brett Clark has slowed considerably over his five year Avalanche career, and Ruslan Salei skates like he has a piano strapped to his back.

Perhaps the biggest reason for consistent defensive breakdowns is a poor transition game. Part of this is due to foot speed, but most of it is due to bad passes out of the zone—every member of the defense has been guilty of this from time to time.

Avalanche coach Joe Sacco's hands have been tied for the most part. If he wants to get physicality in the lineup with guys like Ryan Wilson and Salei, he loses foot speed; if he wants puck movers in the lineup, he turns to guys like John-Michael Liles and Clark, but in turn loses smart decisions in the defensive zone.

What the Avalanche need is a No. 1 defenseman, a guy who can do it all. It appeared early on that they had just that in Kyle Quincey, but recent inconsistent play says otherwise.

Heading into the offseason, Avalanche general manager Greg Sherman will have a tough decision on his hands. Does he sign a decent option like Paul Martin or Dan Hamhuis, or should he instead opt to trade some of the teams young talent for a clear cut No. 1 defenseman, like Thomas Kaberle or Mark Streit?