Here’s a prime example of why the Colorado Avalanche’s season has gone straight into the dumpster.

On Friday, with the Avalanche facing off against the Winnipeg Jets, forward Blake Comeau was presented with one of the sport’s best scoring chance – a breakaway.

Instead of deking out Jets goaltender Connor Hellebuyck, Comeau bizarrely opted to pass the puck to trailing teammate Nathan MacKinnon. The play did not go as planned. Patrik Laine picked off the pass and neutralized the threat immediately. Ultimately, the Avalanche didn’t register a shot attempt despite Comeau’s clearcut breakaway. That’s hard to do.

Encapsulating everything that’s gone wrong with the NHL-worst Avs, the moment is another sour note on the team’s horrendous season. To top it off, Colorado was already down 5-0 in just the second period.

Of course, a team is going to have trouble winning when a players confidence is so shaken, they feel the need to pass on a one-on-one situation. Comeau’s decision making was very poor, but I don’t blame him for completely messing up. It’s been the Avs way in 2016-17. At this point, it’s all he knows. With only 17 wins in 63 games, the club has posted just 37 points all year. To put that in perspective, Arizona has the second-lowest point total at 53 – a full 16 points higher.

Indicative of Colorado’s season-long struggles and their performance against the Jets, Comeau’s flub was unforgivably bad. A 6-1 loss was well-deserved. It could have been much worse.

Thankfully, fans in Denver should sleep easy knowing there are less than 20 games remaining in the season.  After that, they can pretend to be optimistic about the Avs future.

[theScore]

About Liam McGuire

Social +Staff writer for The Comeback & Awful Announcing. Liammcguirejournalism@gmail.com