Mighty Avalanche unraveling

It was not the response - on the ice or in the locker room -expected from a team with the Colorado Avalanche's pedigree.

The Stanley Cup champion is beginning to display uncertainty inits first-round series against the Blackhawks.

Colorado was able to explain away its Game 3 loss as a lack ofintensity brought on by overconfidence, but Tuesday's 6-3 defeatwasn't so simple."We better be worried," center Joe Sakic said. "We let themback in it, and they have the momentum. This is verydisappointing."The Avalanche swaggered into town with a 2-0 series lead buthead back tied going into Game 5 on Thursday.No longer is Colorado talking about merely picking up theintensity, now the Avalanche is questioning some of its players andstrategy."We'll look at mixing things up a little and bringing in somefresh guys," coach Marc Crawford said. "Maybe that's what it's goingto take right now."Fresh guys? Against a team that finished 26 points behindduring the regular season?The Hawks are forcing the Avalanche into strange happenings,like pulling goalie Patrick Roy with 6:34 left in the third period."It was a gamble, and it didn't work," Crawford said. "We triedto get something going."Crawford also tried to get something going after the game bycomplaining about Eric Weinrich's knee-to-knee hit on Adam Deadmarshthat knocked the winger out of the game with 2:39 remaining."It was a flagrant knee," said Crawford, who isn't sure ofDeadmarsh's status for Game 5. "We'll see what the league does."Sakic said the Avalanche better do something about the number ofodd-man rushes that seem to be rattling Roy, who refused to talk tothe media after the game.Sakic went so far as to suggest Colorado adopt the Blackhawks'style of offense."We have to learn to dump the puck in," Sakic said. "(Theodd-man rushes) happen because we try to get too cute at the blueline."It's not clicking in our head that they play strong defense.And we're playing right into their hands with all of our cuteplays."Adam Foote wasn't worried about cute plays. The Avalanchedefenseman has knocked two rebounds past Roy, including the firstgoal Tuesday, but he claims the team doesn't feel unlucky."I don't believe in being unlucky," he said. "We've just hadsome bad bounces."Being bounced from the playoffs is still a long way away for theAvalanche, but the seeds of doubt might have been planted.