It felt after the first two losses that the Avalanche were headed in the right direction. All they needed was to fix a few minor gaffes, let the goalie get comfortable, and the wins would start to pile on.

The Avalanche lost to the Islanders 6-2 on Monday at Ball Arena. Calum Ritchie scored the first goal of his NHL career and Casey Mittelstadt notched his third goal of the season. Ritchie opened the scoring with his at 1:01 of the first period on a one-timer from the slot off an assist from Josh Manson.

The Colorado Avalanche are 0-3 but the problems run so much deeper. After they lost 8-4 to the Vegas Golden Knights, it was easy to write things off as ‘no big deal.’ Dropping a disappointing home opener to the Columbus Blue Jackets 6-4 moved things officially into ‘concerning’ territory.