Colorado Avalanche Struggles at Home Could Be a Coaching Issue

The Colorado Avalanche got off to one of the hottest starts in the NHL this season when they won all five games of a road trip that included wins in Boston, Montreal and Toronto.

As much success as the Avalanche have had on the road, they have struggled just as much when playing at home.

The Colorado Avalanche are, at the time of my writing this article, 6-1-1 on the road and have scored more than 30 goals.

While playing at home, the Avalanche are 1-5-0 at home and have scored only seven goals on their home ice.

As I mentioned in a previous article, the Avalanche are in the middle of a long stretch of games that sees them playing 14 out of 18 games at home, and their success for the season will largely be determined by their success on this stretch at home.

Ever since the second half of last season, the ineptitude of the Colorado Avalanche when at home is second to none. In the calendar year of 2011, the Colorado Avalanche have won a grand total of seven games at home.

The scary part about this is that only three of those victories have come in regulation.

The question that I have had about all of this is very simple. At what point does this complete inability to score goals or play a full 60 minute game on a team's own home ice get pinned on the coach?

Though it wouldn't have made me very sad to see him go, I understand why Joe Sacco wasn't fired at the end of last season's inexcusable run. The team was so held down by injuries that it became almost comical.

Now that the team is at full health, though, shouldn't the team be able to put things together on their own ice?

What is so different about playing on the road that makes them able to score seemingly almost at will?

Here's my theory. Sacco has said several times through last year and at the beginning of this season that it has gotten in his own team's head.

On the road, the Avalanche are thinking about doing the little things that help you get wins in a game. Forecheck hard, get shots to the net, play a physical game, etc...

When the Avalanche are playing at home the message is completely different. Rather than thinking about all of those small things that they are doing well on the road, the are being bombarded with the message that they have to win at home.

So rather than thinking forecheck, get shots to the net, the Avalanche are thinking, "My god we have to score here." All of that leads to this extra squeezing of the stick that the Avalanche just can't seem to get over.

To me, this is a huge coaching issue because it shows that Sacco hasn't been able to change the message that is getting to his team for almost a full calendar year now, and that is something that a team needs to worry about.

Hockey players should be thinking about executing a game plan, not about absolutely needing to win a home game.

The Avalanche have eight more home games in the month of November and absolutely must begin getting some wins.

If the Avalanche are unable to do anything outside of what we've seen thus far, then I believe that the Avalanche have absolutely no choice but to fire Joe Sacco and move in a different direction.

Kevin Goff is a Featured Columnist for the Colorado Avalanche and NHL on Bleacher Report. For more NHL news and discussion,