Then they reminded everyone of how quickly they can turn a game with their offensive firepower.

Colorado yielded four goals in an ugly second period, but rallied for a 6-5 victory that was far more about the result than the overall process. The Avs had lost five of six before this, but one strong period bailed them out.

“We felt like we were outplaying them, and (coach Jared Bednar) came in and agreed with us,” Avs center Nathan MacKinnon said. “It feels like every mistake we make right is costing us, so we have to be careful. … It felt like we had generated a lot of chances and could have been up. We had a lot of belief.”

The Avs scored three times in 4:10 during the third to erase a 5-3 deficit. Ross Colton scored on a broken play to pull the Avalanche within one.

Mikko Rantanen scored a goal for the first time in 10 games to tie it up. It was a greasy one, a rebound of a Cale Makar shot with multiple bodies around the crease. Then MacKinnon got in behind the Calgary defense for the game winner with 4:30 left.

“I think it was important,” Makar said. “Obviously you don’t always want it to be a shootout, but … it’s good to build that confidence knowing that regardless of how many goals we’re down, we can come back. I think that’s something we lacked at the beginning of the year. When we would get down a couple goals, we kind of backed down. For us, it was a big character win and shows where everybody’s hearts are at.”

If this night wasn’t wild enough, Rantanen had some pointed comments after the game. Artturi Lehkonen’s father, Ismo, is a hockey analyst for Yle, a national media outlet in Finland.

Ismo Lehkonen was quoted in a Yle story Monday morning, connecting Rantanen’s recent slump to a bad offseason.

“One of our Finnish NHL player’s dad was talking (expletive) about me in media, that I didn’t train last summer like I used to,” Rantanen told reporters after the game. “He was making things up. That was for him.

“If you talk (expletive), it’s going to come back at you.”

One of Bednar’s talking points over the past two days was turnovers and yielding scoring chances off them. Most of the mistakes he was referencing were happening on the other team’s side of the ice, but Colorado’s top players coughed up the puck on their side before former Avalanche center Nazem Kadri opened the scoring.

Devon Toews tried a long cross-ice pass to Rantanen that was broken up. Rantanen had two chances to get the Avs out of danger, but his pass was intercepted by Blake Coleman and he fed Kadri for a shot from the high slot.

The Colorado players felt like they weren’t making that many mistakes, but there were several in the middle period that ended up in the Avalanche net.

Andrew Mangiapane and Yegor Sharangovich scored goals on coverage busts in the high-danger area in front of Alexandar Georgiev. Connor Zary batted one out of the air after the Avs won a defensive-zone faceoff had a chance to clear the puck but could not. Blake Coleman scored on a relatively straightforward rush play.

Georgiev allowed five goals on 22 shots before being replaced by Ivan Prosvetov for the final period.

There were other positives at the offensive end. Tomas Tatar scored his first goal of the season after a great play from Ross Colton. Makar scored the club’s first power-play goal in 17 opportunities. Ben Meyers added a fourth-line tally in his first game with the Avs this season.

If there is a silver lining with the defensive miscues on this particular night, it’s that Colorado’s best players were at fault. Makar was on the ice for four of Calgary’s goals. Toews, MacKinnon and Rantanen were out there for three.

Those players have earned the benefit of the doubt in the big picture. And they were largely the ones who propelled the Avs to a dramatic comeback victory.

“That’s been a little bit of a trend. They carry our team, and yet they’ve been making some big mistakes that are ending up in the back of our net,” Bednar said. “There’s a high level of trust from me. They have to understand that some of the mistakes or decisions we make are unacceptable, but they’re still going to be able to get rope to go play the way they can.”

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The former phenom struggled to cope with meeting the great expectations that accompanied his return home to his native Montreal to play for his beloved Canadiens.

When he arrived in Denver, it felt like a fresh start. So when the early part of this season didn’t go the way he had originally envisioned, Drouin was more prepared to handle the adversity than his younger self back in “la belle province.”

“Way differently,” Drouin said when asked how he handled it. “… Me and Tuna (Tomas Tatar) got scratched that one day. You could take that so many bad ways. I think me and him took it the right way. We just put our heads down and went to work.

“You look at Nate (MacKinnon), every day he does the same thing. He’s always working on stuff. Some games are good and some aren’t, but if you’re doing your work good stuff is going to happen.”

The good times eventually arrived for Drouin. He’s been one of Colorado’s best players over the past few weeks, providing an offensive boost at a time when the Avs have needed it. The production isn’t stunning, but three goals and seven points in the past 14 games has him trending in the right direction.

There’s been an impact beyond just the points, as well. Coach Jared Bednar moved him onto the top power-play unit because he wanted an injection of creativity. He’s also had chances to play on the top line next to his old buddy MacKinnon again after being moved off it earlier in the year.

“The key is (Drouin) has really picked up his game. Mac is going to be Mac. He’s going to do his thing. When you’re placing players with Mac, you want them to really be on top of their game so that everyone can benefit. That’s where we feel like (Drouin) is right now,” Bednar said.

“The biggest thing for me with him is he put in some work on video, and then the pace of the game and the way he can use skating in order to make plays and be elusive, that’s really picked up. Not just recently. He’s playing well. You can see all the skill and ability, and he’s been responsible on the defensive side of it. He’s really taken ownership of that and working on it. He’s turning into a good 200-foot player for us.”

Drouin has played more than 46 minutes in the past two games with Valeri Nichushkin out of the lineup. Without Nichushkin (illness) and Artturi Lehkonen (neck), the Avs are short half of their six top wings. Mikko Rantanen began the season scorching hot but has cooled of late while working through a funk.

The Avs signed Drouin and Tatar to provide scoring depth, but right now Denver needs someone to take more of a leading role.

“I think it’s been a couple weeks now where I feel like I’m building on something,” Drouin said. “I just feel like it’s instincts now. I’m comfortable. I’m not thinking. I’m just playing hockey. I know our systems and what we want to do. When you’re a player like me, when I’m thinking or overthinking, that’s when I start making mistakes and my feet stop moving. When I’m on instincts, my feet move and I make better plays.”

Bednar alluded to Drouin’s all-around play, but he also hasn’t shied away from some of the physical aspects of the game. He hasn’t been floating near the edge of battles in the corners, waiting for someone else to dig out the puck for him.

No one is going to confuse Drouin for Kurtis MacDermid, but he’s been involved in a couple of post-whistle skirmishes that went beyond the typical, “OK, you shoved me, I face-washed you, let’s we move on” situations.

“There’s an edge there, for sure,” Drouin said. “I think that when you get that going in the first period or the first couple shifts, it can get you into the game a little bit. It’s like, ‘Well, you’re in the game now,’ after you hit someone or get in someone’s face. Early in my career, it wasn’t that I would fall asleep, but if I wasn’t getting the puck as much and not making any plays, I realized I needed to find a way to get into the game so if the puck does come in the second or third period, you feel more ready for it.”

Footnotes: Lehkonen skated briefly before Colorado’s optional practice Friday. He hasn’t played since crashing into the boards and injuring his neck Nov. 9 against Seattle. Bednar said earlier this week there was still no timeline on his return.

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The Colorado Avalanche was working on the power play, and Nathan MacKinnon was frustrated. MacKinnon, whose reputation as one of the most intense players in the sport is well-earned, yelled in frustration. It wasn’t clear whether he was yelling at Artturi Lehkonen or just expressing his displeasure in general.

Ryan Johansen, one of several new additions to the club and someone who’s been a veteran leader for years in the NHL, quietly skated over to Lehkonen and gave him a stick tap on the shin pad. A little later, a calmer MacKinnon and Lehkonen had a quick chat, the latter demonstrating an idea with his stick and both players nodding in agreement.

The standard in the Colorado locker room is crystal clear for the 2023-24 season: win the Stanley Cup. This team has the star power, depth and institutional knowledge of how to reach the NHL’s mountaintop.

What this team does not have is its captain — in the locker room, on the plane or on the ice. Gabriel Landeskog is the Avs’ heart-and-soul leader, but he will not play this regular season and may not be available during the playoffs while he recovers from a knee injury that took last year from him as well.

This group of Avalanche players must find leadership, preferably organically, from other sources.

“We’ve been missing him for a year and a half, two years now. It is obviously not ideal, but it has helped a lot of guys in this room grow and find their voice and work toward being a leader and a voice for the team,” Avs defenseman Devon Toews said. “It’s a really open room. It’s like our own little community in here, so nobody’s voice goes unheard. It’s helped some guys come out of their shell.

“… At the same time, you’re missing your true leader, your captain, the guy that pushes everybody forward. It’s hard to pull the room (in one direction) sometimes with a group when you don’t have your one single leader. We’re making it work, but we do miss him.”

In some ways, this team is a fascinating social experiment. Landeskog was the youngest captain in NHL history when the Avs gave him the “C” back in September 2012.

While the organization built a Stanley Cup-winning roster around him, Landeskog was at the forefront of forging a culture that helped MacKinnon, Cale Makar and Mikko Rantanen develop into superstars and champions. Those three are arguably among the 10 best skaters in the world, and represent the biggest reason why Colorado is a serious threat to win another title.

All three of them, plus several of their teammates, offered the same sentiment about Landeskog: He is irreplaceable.

How does a team with championship aspirations find another way then? It’s certainly a group effort.

“We try to help each other,” Rantanen said. “I think we need other guys to step up who have been here for a few years as well. And you don’t have 1,000 games to lead. I think it’s important that guys feel comfortable. If you have experience, like this guy (Johansen), he is chatty in the room and helping as well. I think we have to do it together because you can’t just replace (Landeskog).”

It starts with Colorado’s big three. MacKinnon, Makar and Rantanen are the club’s three assistant captains. They are the team’s three best players, so teammates are going to look to them regardless of their leadership skills.

They make for an interesting trio. A very surface-level diagnosis is this: MacKinnon is intense, Rantanen easy-going and Makar somewhere in the middle.

That’s not fair to any of them, but particularly MacKinnon and Rantanen. Jack Johnson was quick to note there is a lighter side with MacKinnon, just as no one on the team would question Rantanen’s intensity and will to win when the lights go on.

“The best way to lead is on the ice, whether it is practice or games,” Johansen said. “Those three guys are absolute beasts in every area of this game we play. Those are the guys we look at to lead and that’s what they just naturally do.”

All three of them have said they aren’t the “big speech” guy, which is what most people outside of a hockey locker room think is the most important aspect of being a captain. Makar said he doesn’t speak up often, but hopes his words carry a meaningful weight when he does.

Two of MacKinnon’s teammates described him in the same way. Rantanen said Landeskog is the guy who has been the most outspoken in the past.

This team is experienced enough that it shouldn’t need a saber-rattling lecture very often, but if that time ever arrives someone else would need to handle it.

“I try to be vocal in the room, but not too much,” Rantanen said. “If I have some points that I can point out to maybe the team, that will be good. Then obviously I try to play the right way on the ice. I think that’s the most important thing, to play to our system and work hard every night to lead the way. That’s how I like to do it.

“We know when we’re not playing well. (Coach Jared Bednar) is usually the guy who’s telling us most of that, but we have some accountability in the room too. Nate, myself, (Andrew) Cogliano, other guys can say something when we’re not playing well. It is important that it comes from the room, too, and not just the coaches.”

Fans and media members often put too much onus on the captain of any team, but that’s part of the pressure of wearing the “C.” Anyone from a championship-winning team will be quick to point out that leadership doesn’t just come from the guys who have a letter on their jerseys.

The Avs have three star players in their primes, and they have all earned praise for their work ethic and commitment to playing “the right way” — hallmarks of being a good leader. But the club’s leadership group goes well beyond them.

Cogliano has played more than 1,200 regular-season games, plus 120 more in the playoffs. If there was a wing in the Hockey Hall of Fame for “glue guys,” Cogliano would be a lock.

Johnson has played more than 1,100 regular-season games. He’s played on a team that didn’t have a captain. He’s played on bad teams and great ones. He was a leader and strong playoff performer on a Cup finalist in Nashville. He’s been a seamless addition to the locker room, and his thoughtful gesture ahead of the team’s Moms’ Trip made an immediate impact.

Toews is one of those players whose voice has become more prominent, and he’s another one who does all the right things on and off the ice. Josh Manson was an assistant captain for three seasons in Anaheim.

Ross Colton won the Cup with Tampa Bay, and the energy that players like him, Miles Wood and Logan O’Connor play with can be infectious.

“It’s opportunities and challenges and moments for other guys to step up in Landy’s absence,” Johansen said. “There’s tons of leadership. This is a mature group, an experienced group. I think our room and our vibe and our energy from day to day is awesome.”

One thing that is not going to happen is a player not named Landeskog skating on an NHL rink in an Avalanche sweater with a “C” sewn on. The Avs did not know if their captain would return last season. This year, they know he will not … at least until the playoffs, at the earliest.

“We are still expecting him back, whether it is sooner or later,” Johnson said. “He’ll be back and be in the room. To do that, to kind of shuffle it around, would kind of discredit what it actually is. When teams rotate it around, you don’t want to turn it into employee of the week.”

Bednar was asked about naming a temporary captain before the season began. He quickly shot it down.

A couple of Avs players were asked about the idea recently, and they had the same reaction.

“Somebody has to earn the title of being captain,” Toews said. “It’s a privilege and an honor to do it. I don’t think there’s a single guy in here who would want it with Gabe having it right now. And until he’s done playing and out of the league, he will always be the captain here. I don’t think that would be the right thing to do.

“We run deep, as far as leaders go in this group. We have a lot of guys with experience being leaders in different roles.”

A different team, a younger, less experienced one, might struggle without the guy who has been the emotional fulcrum for as long as Landeskog has been in Colorado. The Avs went through this for the first time last season.

A late-season surge to claim a Central Division title despite injuries to their captain and others became a point of pride and affirmation of the club’s culture. How the season ended, with an upset loss to upstart Seattle after Valeri Nichushkin left the team before Game 3 under murky circumstances, was a reminder of how thin the margins can be at the highest level.

This season has included a few hiccups, but the team’s play since an adverse stretch a month ago is more data to suggest this can be a very successful campaign, even without its captain.

“We have a high standard,” Bednar said. “It’s not always going to come together for you, but I do feel like the messaging from our team and coaching staff has been really consistent. (The players) take a lot of ownership in that. We give them a big voice in there, in meetings and even game-planning if they see things. We’re trying to be a family and we feel like the bigger voice that the players have, the more they will take ownership of it.”

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It would really hurt to waste a hockey club blessed with the generational talent of Cale Makar, Nathan MacKinnon and Mikko Rantanen.

Here we are, far enough into the NHL season for anybody in this dusty old cowtown not unhealthily obsessed with the mediocre Broncos to see the Avs have as good a shot as any team in the league to win a championship this season.

Except for one troublesome thing, and it’s the same old irksome thing: Colorado still hasn’t found a solid way to replace center Nazem Kadri from the fire trucks that rode through Denver during that glorious victory parade in 2022.

There’s a nagging hole in this team’s championship dream at 2C.

Can the Avs solve this problem without making a trade? Nothing in a 4-2 loss to Winnipeg gave me much reason for optimism.

When the Avs took the ice on Thursday night, their second-line center was … Ross Colton?

Don’t get me wrong. Colton is a bundle of hustle and heart, good on the forecheck and in the room. But isn’t that pretty much the definition of a third-line center on a legit championship contender?

Not to suggest Avalanche coach Jared Bednar has lost confidence in Ryan Johansen, a righteous dude who Colorado got for 50 cents on the dollar in an offseason trade with Nashville. But I don’t think it was just my imagination running wild to think Bednar got a little testy when recently asked to explain why Colton has surpassed Johansen in ice time.

“I don’t have to (justify it). There’s nothing saying that Ryan Johansen needs more ice time than Ross Colton,” Bednar said. “If Ross Colton’s played well and doing the job that he’s doing, then he’s earning more ice.”

Bednar has done an admirable job guiding Colorado to the top of the Central Division in another year when the hockey gods have not exactly been kind to a team winning at a remarkable rate despite the absence of captain Gabe Landeskog, winger  Artturi Lehkonen and defenseman Sam Girard.

But does Bednar have enough firepower at his disposal to compete with Las Vegas and Dallas when the playoffs roll around, if Colorado must depend on defenseman Makar to be the team’s de facto 2C behind MacKinnon?

Super Joe Sakic is the best thing to ever happen to hockey in Colorado, but now that he’s taken a step into the shadows, we still don’t know if general manager Chris MacFarland has what it takes to re-invent a championship roster.

Well, good Boy Scout that I am, let me offer a helping hand:

Go make a freakin’ deal!

Yes, there’s the very sticky issue of the Avalanche being stuck against the NHL salary cap with little room to breathe, much less wiggle.

But the genius of creative thinking and the guts to make hard choices were the trademarks of the late, great Pierre Lacroix, who stubbornly believed any year the Avs didn’t win the Cup was a failure.

MacFarland has the contacts around the league, so I’ll leave the grunt work to him. I’m just the idea guy, work-shopping the problem.

If I dare to dream big, let’s find the money and convince Minnesota it needs to rebuild and won’t regret trading 26-year-old Joel Eriksson, who has scored a dozen goals already this season, to a division rival. If that’s too much to ask, could Columbus be persuaded to part with 30-year-old Boone Jenner, who scored 26 goals last season in 68 games? Or is Jenner not a big enough upgrade on the talent Bednar can now send over the boards from the Avalanche bench?

As spectacular as Makar, MacKinnon and Rantanen can be, this core hasn’t achieved as much as Las Vegas. Dallas has a strong and younger core than Colorado.

With no clear-cut favorite to win this season’s championship, the Avs need to do whatever’s necessary right now to get their mitts back on the Cup.

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Winnipeg took advantage of a couple of key mistakes and Connor Hellebuyck helped the Jets hang on Thursday night at Ball Arena for a 4-2 win, as the Avs lost for the fourth time in five games (1-2-2) for the first time this season.

Mistakes just before and after the first intermission by top players, combined with a suddenly sputtering power play, were the biggest culprits against the Jets. This stretch doesn’t look as bad as the funk earlier in the year when Colorado lost five of seven with a couple of embarrassing blowouts, but it’s also not near the Avs’ peak performances, either.

“I still think we need some stars to be better than they were tonight,” Avs coach Jared Bednar said. “I’m just really happy that Nate is going. That’s two games in a row. Tonight, I thought he was outstanding. So, we have to get more guys going in the same direction.”

Colorado had four chances on the power play in this game, including a 5-on-3 in the third period, but was unable to convert. The Avs did have a stretch of nine straight contests with a power-play goal, but this is now four straight without one.

They’re 0 for 12 with the man advantage in that span.

“I felt like we were moving it OK on the power play, but a lot of it is on me,” Cale Makar said. “I wasn’t getting shots through and I wasn’t executing passes, so I take a lot of blame for that.”

Winnipeg grabbed the lead with 2.2 seconds left in the opening period after an unforced error. Avs defenseman Devon Toews tried to get the puck to MacKinnon along the left wall in the Colorado zone, but Axel Jonsson-Fjallby picked off the pass and fed Adam Lowry for a wide-open look from the slot.

The Jets extended their lead to 2-0 when Kyle Connor scored just 32 seconds into the second, making it goals on back-to-back Winnipeg shots on both sides of the intermission. Makar’s clearing attempt didn’t get out of the zone and then he fell, which ultimately gave Connor just enough space to get a shot off.

MacKinnon blew by a pair of Winnipeg defenders and beat Hellebuyck with a backhanded attempt to get the Avs on the board at 2:30 of the second period. It was MacKinnon’s 10th goal of the season, and rookie defenseman Sam Malinski collected his first NHL point on the play.

Joel Kiviranta scored with 31 seconds left in the second to get Colorado back within one at 3-2 after another excellent individual effort from MacKinnon. He carried the puck into the offensive zone, absorbed a hip check at full speed, regained control of the puck and sent a no-look pass to Kiviranta in front.

The Avs players thought Kiviranta’s shot went in immediately, but it was only confirmed after a whistle and review. It was the seventh straight Colorado goal that MacKinnon has either scored or assisted on, dating back to the first period in Anaheim last week.

MacKinnon now has a point in 10 straight contests. He did get off to a bit of a slow start this season, at least by his standards, with nine points in the first 10 games. But MacKinnon is now scoring at a 140-point pace since (27 in 16 games), and has only had one night without a point in that span.

“It’s fun to watch. He was buzzing,” Makar said. “You want to help out, but I wasn’t one of the guys who helped tonight.”

Malinski got in the way on Winnipeg’s third goal. He was trying to box out a Jets player at the edge of the crease, but he ended up providing a screen for a Josh Morrissey shot from the left point. Alexandar Georgiev gave Malinski a whack on the leg with his goalie stick immediately after the puck went in the net.

Bednar acknowledged it was something that would be addressed.

“Yeah, that’s my bad,” Georgiev said. “I was frustrated. I think it was my guy, kind of jumped in front of me. I shouldn’t be frustrated, take the game as it goes and not worry about that.”

Footnotes: Valeri Nichushkin missed a second consecutive game because of an illness. Makar (lower body) and Andrew Cogliano (lower body) both returned to the lineup.

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Cale Makar and Andrew Cogliano were on the ice Wednesday for an optional practice at Ball Arena. Coach Jared Bednar said both could possibly return to the lineup Thursday against the Winnipeg Jets.

Makar has missed the past two games, while Cogliano missed the 3-2 win Tuesday against the Anaheim Ducks. Both are dealing with lower-body injuries. There was more good news with defenseman Bowen Byram.

“(Byram) caught a workout this morning and did some treatment,” Bednar said. “So hopefully he’s good for tomorrow.

Byram missed the third period against the Ducks with an upper-body injury. Bednar said after the game it wasn’t head related, which was a good sign given Byram’s history and a head-to-head collision that knocked him to the ice in the second period with Anaheim’s Max Jones.

Nathan MacKinnon was smarting near the end of the game after he blocked a shot, but Bednar said he’s fine. Valeri Nichushkin also missed Tuesday because of an illness. He was not on the ice Wednesday, but could be an option if he feels well enough to play against the Jets.

Artturi Lehkonen (neck) and Samuel Girard (player assistance program) remain out indefinitely. Bednar said they’re not close enough with Lehkonen’s recovery to say if he might be back later this month.

The shorthanded lineup against the Ducks came in the middle of the club’s first stretch of five games in eight days this season. Colorado had its first back-to-back of the year this past weekend and doesn’t have an extra day to rest between games again until Dec. 14.

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Alexandar Georgiev was strong early, Nathan MacKinnon dominated and the Avalanche looked more like a dominant two-way club until a late hiccup in a 3-2 victory against the Anaheim Ducks at Ball Arena. The Avs are hurting, and the situation might have gotten worse in this game, but MacKinnon had a three-point night and one of his best efforts of the campaign to help secure the win.

“It was a great win,” MacKinnon said. “I mean, with our roster we’ve got a lot of pretty good players out. I thought we outplayed them five-on-five. … Overall it was a pretty good game.”

Kurtis MacDermid hadn’t played since Nov. 24 in Minnesota, but he scored for the second time in three shifts to open the scoring just 1:40 in. He collected a pass from MacKinnon with his skate, kicked it to his stick and snapped one into the top corner to beat John Gibson. MacDermid scored on his second-to-last shift in the third period two weeks ago against the Wild, which was the game winner.

There were parts of the first period after the goal when Anaheim had the upper hand, but Georgiev was excellent to keep his team in front. The second period looked more like what the Avs expect.

They created plenty of chances to put this contest away, but Gibson — much like he was Saturday night for the final two periods in Anaheim in a 4-3 Ducks win — was tough to beat. MacKinnon finally did it late in the second.

Josh Manson, filling in for an injured Cale Makar on the top pairing, made a great play to keep the puck in the offensive zone during a prolonged possession, knocking it down with his glove along the wall. Gibson stopped Manson’s point shot, but Jonathan Drouin one-touched the rebound to MacKinnon with a perfect cross-crease pass for an easy one and a two-goal lead.

MacKinnon fed his new linemate, Logan O’Connor, in front of the Anaheim net at 6:21 of the third to give Colorado some insurance. It is MacKinnon’s fourth three-point game of the season.

Avs coach Jared Bednar altered the forward lines more than he has in any game this season. O’Connor moved to the top line, bumping Mikko Rantanen down. Ross Colton moved up to the second line to join him, along with Oskar Olausson, who was making his season debut with the Avalanche. Joel Kiviranta moved up the third line, where Ryan Johansen landed for the first time.

“It went good,” MacKinnon said of his new-look line. “With OC, you know what you’re getting. He’s an easy guy to read off of. (Drouin) is the same thing. He’s always trying to find me in open ice to try and get some zone entries. I thought Mikko did a great job, too, obviously playing with a young kid in Oskar and helping him a lot tonight.”

Part of the reason for the shuffle was that both Valeri Nichushkin (illness) and Andrew Cogliano (lower body) were unavailable. They joined a growing list of players who were not in the lineup. Makar was out for the second consecutive game because of a lower-body injury, though he did participate in the morning skate. Artturi Lehkonen (neck) and Samuel Girard (player assistance program) remain out indefinitely.

The list grew again when Bowen Byram didn’t return for the third period. Max Jones knocked Byram down in the middle of the second period with a big hit. O’Connor immediately took exception and went after Jones. There was no penalty on the play, and Bryam did play two more shifts before exiting with what a team official said was an upper-body injury.

Bednar said after the game that Byram’s injury is not a head injury. He also is hopeful that Makar could return as soon as Thursday night against Winnipeg.

It did get hairy for the Avs late. Sam Carrick scored a shorthanded goal with 9:17 left, but things got worse when Fredrik Olofsson tripped Leo Carlsson. MacDermid went after Carlsson after the whistle and collected a second infraction, so the Ducks had a 5-on-3 for a full two minutes.

They needed exactly half of it before Carlsson scored on a one-timer from Troy Terry to make it a one-goal game with 5:49 remaining. The Avs were able to kill off the rest and avoid what would have been a stunning collapse.

“Today was just getting a win,” Drouin said. “The line combinations and ‘D’ combinations were all in the blender. I thought we kept it simple for 40 minutes. Maybe we got away from that on the one power play and gave them a little sniff to get back in the game. But for close to 60 minutes, I thought we played well.”

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The Avalanche were playing for the third time in four nights Sunday, and the slightly earlier start time meant even less of a recovery in the back-to-back situation. Meanwhile, the Kings, one of the hottest teams in the league (11-2-2 in their previous 15 games), hadn’t played since Wednesday.

That showed up in the final period. The Avalanche ran out of gas in a 4-1 loss at Crypto.com Arena, a disappointing end to a winless road trip (0-1-2).

“We kind of got served a pizza here,” Avs defenseman Josh Manson said, alluding to a hockey slang term usually reserved for a bad turnover on the ice. “Late last night, back-to-back going into a 5 o’clock game. I’ve never seen that before. They’re coming off two days of rest. It’s in their rink. That’s a tough game.

“We had them 1-0, 1-1 in the second period. Towards the end of the third, it just kind of fell apart.”

Los Angeles had 15 of the first 17 shots in the third period, leaning on the Avs before they finally broke. Quinton Byfield finished a beautiful four-player passing sequence at 13:26 of the third. Trevor Moore roofed a shot from in tight 56 seconds later.

The Avs went from hanging on by a thread to their first game without at least a point in seven contests.

“You could tell which team was the rested team in the third period,” Avs coach Jared Bednar said. “They started putting the heat on us, making it tougher to move the puck up the ice. They kind of took the game over there.”

The Avs were without Cale Makar, who missed a game for the first time this season. He’s been banged up on multiple occasions, but Makar missed the final 2:57 of regulation and all of overtime Saturday night in Anaheim. After the game, Avs coach Jared Bednar said he was “dealing with something” and wasn’t available.

Bednar said before the game Sunday that Makar was out against the Kings, but he didn’t know about a timeline beyond that. It’s a lower-body injury. He’s been arguably the best defenseman in the league in the first quarter of the season, and there’s a case for him as the best overall player as well.

Makar won the Norris Trophy two years ago, but missing 22 games played a big role in him not collecting the award again.

The Avs looked like a team that had played the previous night in the first few minutes of this contest, but after a near-goal from the Kings’ Philip Danult, Colorado used a defense-first approach to grab the lead. Manson had the lone goal of the period, his first of the season in his first game skating on the club’s top defense pairing in place of the injured Makar. It came on a tic-tac-toe passing play, with Nathan MacKinnon igniting a rush before finding Miko Rantanen for a touch-pass to a trailing Manson.

Colorado nearly made it a two-goal lead in the second period when Valeri Nichushkin set up Rantanen for a near-certain goal, but Kings defenseman Drew Doughty made one of the biggest saves of the game. Byfield leveled the score with a tip-in tally at 9:03 of the second. MacKinnon wasn’t happy with how he was defended at the Los Angeles end, and then just missed being able to disrupt a shot-pass from Mikey Anderson as a trailer during the Kings’ ensuing rush.

“It was just a couple of minutes there,” Avs defenseman Jack Johnson said. “That’s all it was. When you’re playing in a 2-1 type of game, it’s just one missed coverage here or the small things that make a difference in a tight game. I don’t think either team was giving up much the whole game. It was just a bad couple of minutes for us.”

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Arizona scored in overtime Thursday night to give the Avs (15-6-1) their first post-regulation defeat, but the context of the goal was particularly stunning. Colorado had to kill off a 4-on-3 power play in the extra session, and did so with some heroic work from the penalty killers and goaltender Alexandar Georgiev.

But, just seconds after the penalty expired and before the Avs could really settle into 4-on-4 play, the puck squirted off Cale Makar’s stick and through Georgiev’s legs with some help from Coyotes forward Nick Bjugstad.

Makar called it unfortunate and unlucky.

“I didn’t think we played our best tonight, but to be able to come back in the third and after giving up some goals that we didn’t like, squared it and go into overtime — I mean, you take a penalty in overtime, it’s usually not a good thing,” Bednar said. “We almost survived it. We would have loved to have two points out of it, but we’ll take the one, learn from it and move on.”

It was technically the third time the Avs have lost in the final minute of the game. Colorado also allowed a game-winning goal with 32 seconds left against Seattle and two goals in the final 37 seconds in a come-from-ahead loss in Nashville.

The Avalanche followed the Seattle loss with an embarrassing 8-2 defeat at home against St. Louis. That spurred a stark improvement, and Colorado is now 7-1-1 since. The one regulation loss was at Nashville, a defeat that could easily rattle a team.

Not this one. Not at that point. The Avs shook off one bad minute in an otherwise solid game and ripped off four more wins in a row.

“We didn’t even talk about it,” Nathan MacKinnon said of the loss to the Predators earlier this week. “I think when bad teams stay bad it’s because they dwell on things.”

The Blues game was another potential tipping point for this team. Colorado began the season with six straight wins, but the stretch that followed was pretty miserable.

First, it was three shutout losses in a four-game span. Then, after a win against a shorthanded New Jersey team, the Avs lost back-to-back games against the Kraken and Blues.

At that point, they were 8-5-0, and the good vibes from the hot start were largely gone. Four losses by four-plus goals, plus a stunner in the final minute, is certainly a rough patch. Toss in a scary injury to Artturi Lehkonen. It all led to a terrible third period against the Blues, one that Bednar uncharacteristically teed off on in his postgame media session.

The coach could have put his troops through a grueling practice the next day reminiscent of the one depicted in the movie “Miracle” that has become an oft-used meme. Bednar even said that he kind of wanted to. But, after he and the team convened at Ball Arena, Bednar decided an optional practice was the right move.

“We had a big meeting, obviously, but no big skate, no negativity,” MacKinnon said about the Blues postmortem. “(Bednar) didn’t even bring up the (Nashville) game. We had a day off. Then we played Vancouver and beat them, and we’ve been playing really well.

“I’m sure if we didn’t have a day off, he’d have brought it up. But I think sometimes it’s better to just throw some games away. It’s easy to break it down with all the video and technology, but sometimes it’s just good to throw it away and get ready for another one.”

So, the Avs will try to shake off another stunning loss. This time, potential retribution will come with back-to-back games in Southern California against the slumping Ducks and surging Kings.

The Avs had another optional practice Friday in Irvine. Part of that is because teams rarely practice hard in the middle of a three-games-in-four-nights stretch. But it’s also because there’s a level of trust between the coach and a veteran roster with the highest expectations possible.

“I don’t think it’s just because of my internal process. I think it’s the confidence I have in our team,” Bednar said. “The trust I have, and our history together — I know how competitive they are and how hard they work and how much they put into our process to have success.

“When you go through some rough times after having success, you’re pretty confident that your team can turn it around and they’re not going to dwell on it or having it go the wrong way.”

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Avalanche defenseman Cale Makar appeared to accidentally put the puck in his own net, as it slipped between goalie Alexandar Georgiev’s legs during a scramble just as the 4-on-3 power play expired, and the Coyotes prevailed 4-3 at Mullett Arena.

Bjugstad made a strong move to the net and Georgiev made the initial save. When Makar tried to sweep the loose puck out of danger, Bjugstad’s stick made contact with his and the end result was a Coyotes victory.

“I was just trying to take a shot away,” Makar said. “It’s unfortunate. I think he pushed my stick, or it just hit my stick and popped through. Just really unlucky and unfortunate.”

The Coyotes had a power play in the extra session because Bjugstad got behind Bowen Byram, and the defenseman slashed him to prevent a mini-breakaway scoring chance.

Another positive night from the power play helped the Avalanche get to overtime for the second time this season after falling behind early in the third period.

The Avs had scored in eight straight games on the power play coming into this contest, but Colorado had struck more than once with the man advantage only twice this season. Nathan MacKinnon made it three times with a one-time blast at 11:04 of the third period to tie this game at 3-3.

“That power play in particular was our best of the night,” Avs coach Jared Bednar said. “It was the hardest-working power play we had. The firmness in our passes, the puck movement, identifying the open man … there’s a lot that I liked on that. I want our power play on a regular basis to look like that.”

After a slow start to the season, the Avs’ power play is now 11 for 40 (27.5%) in the past nine games. This was also the ninth-straight game that Colorado has won the special teams battle, a streak that began after the Avs allowed four special-teams goals (two power play, two shorthanded) in an 8-2 loss to the St. Louis Blues.

Given how consistently strong the Avalanche has been at even strength over the past several seasons, opposing teams know that not outscoring the Avs on special teams is going to significantly reduce their chances.

Makar continued his torrid month offensively with a power-play goal to open the scoring. Makar’s shot from the top of the offensive zone with Valeri Nichushkin providing a screen has become a go-to weapon for the Avalanche with the extra man this season, and he did it again with 29 seconds left in the opening period.

The goal was Makar’s seventh tally of the season. He finished November with four goals and 24 points. The 20 assists are the most by a defenseman in the month of November in league history.

Travis Boyd leveled the score 3:03 into the second period, though Georgiev did not like the events that occurred in front of him just before the puck went past him. Liam O’Brien skated in front of the goalie and knocked Avs defenseman Devon Toews into him.

Just as Georgiev was getting squared up to the puck again, Boyd shot one that appeared to hit something in front of the goaltender. He slammed his stick on the ice a couple of times after the scoreboard replay, but the Avs’ coaching staff declined to challenge for goalie interference.

Miles Wood got behind the Coyotes defense to give the Avs another lead less than two minutes later. Caleb Jones chipped the puck along the right wall in the Arizona end, and after Wood corralled it he took a direct route to the net. Wood was able to wrap his shot around Coyotes goalie Connor Ingram for his fourth goal of the season at 4:44 of the period.

The Avs did allow an Arizona power-play goal late in the second period. It came 11 seconds after Jones went to the box, with Nick Schmaltz finding a soft spot in the middle of the Colorado defense for a one-timer. The Avalanche penalty kill was 27 of 29 since the St. Louis debacle before this contest.

Michael Carcone gave the Coyotes their first lead of the night 68 seconds into the third period. He skated out from behind the Avalanche net for a wraparound try and was able to tuck it past Georgiev inside the far post.

“I feel like we played a really good third (period) and we battled back,” Makar said. “It’s hard to go (on the PK) in OT. Four-on-threes are hard. We weathered it for most of it and unfortunately that’s just sometimes how the way it goes with unlucky bounces.”

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