The Colorado Avalanche are barely into the 2010-11 season, but it’s nevertheless clear what their problem area is: the power play. During last night’s 4-2 loss to the Philadelphia Flyers, the Avs gave up one official short-handed goal and another goal that might as well have been short-handed, and they couldn’t manage to score on three of their own power-play opportunities (via The Denver Post).

“Even if we don’t score, we’ve got to try to get some momentum for our team,” says second-year star Matt Duchene. “We had three goals against tonight with five guys on the ice….We’ve got to tighten up in that area.”

Mile High Hockey agrees, writing that the Avs are indeed struggling with the “still-missing power play” and are seeing consistent scoring from just one line.

Tonight’s game won’t be any easier, as the Avalanche head to Detroit to take on the Red Wings, regularly one of the best teams in the NHL (5:30 p.m.). CBS Sports points out that the Red Wings are off to a hot 2-0 start this year and look again to be one of the dominant teams in the league’s Western Conference. Although the Avs have taken three of the last four games from the Red Wings in Detroit, the Red Wings won the seven games prior to those. Perhaps this young Avs team can tap into some of the wisdom on display last week, when 26 members of the 1995-’96 Stanley Cup Championship team reunited in Denver. 5280’s Daliah Singer and Jeff Panis were there to capture the event in a video slideshow.