Avalanche forwards Gabe Landeskog and Carl Soderberg had exactly the identical answer, which was no answer.

“If we knew how to repair it, we’d,” they each said Feb. 16, soon after absorbing a 3-0 loss to the St. Louis Blues in the Pepsi Center.

Colorado had just lost its sixth consecutive game at home, where it was last season, reeling off a record 28 victories at the Pepsi Center. They stood 10-12-5 at home after getting blanked by the Blues.

The principal difference? Special teams — and especially wretched penalty killing in front of the home crowd.

Notwithstanding their last two home games — both dominate victories over Vegas (3-0) and Winnipeg (7-1) last week — the Avs have been considerably better on the power play and penalty kill on the road. They rank 30th in the 31-team NHL in penalty killing on the power play at home and 17th. They were 10th and fifth in those categories on the road entering Friday’s game at Chicago.

The PK issues at home have been particularly damaging to get a group that leads the league in penalty minutes (620) and penalty minutes per game (10:19). But based on last season, it shouldn’t be this way.

Last year, when they tied the 2000-01 Stanley-Cup winning team with a franchise-record 28 successes at the Pepsi Center, the Avs had an unbelievable, league-leading penalty-killing success rate of 91.7 percent at home. They only allowed 10 goals at home in 121 disadvantages, the fewest allowed by an NHL team in an 80-plus-game season.

The coaching staff and, for the most part, the same players returned this year. But the house PK has gone from top-ranked to most second-worst in the league.

“It’s dumbfounding,” Avs defenseman Erik Johnson said.

“It’s an on-going process,” added third-year Avs coach Jared Bednar. “There’s hours and hours of video that goes to it. ”

There are generally three types of penalty kills — basic, competitive and aggressive. In a 5-on-4 drawback, most NHL teams defend entry to their own zone with a 3-1 appearance — three players on their blue line and the fourth between the circles in the front of the goalie. The degree of aggressiveness comes into play, When the competition on the power play has gained puck possession in the offense zone.

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The Avs are becoming more competitive on the PK since using more of the simple style earlier in the season.

“We want to have more aggressive and put some heat on teams,” Bednar said. “It’s quite similar to what we had been doing previously. We’ve made some tweaks to it, found some cause points to get more competitive. But what we were doing before wasn’t actually working. It flashes, and had instances, where it would work. And at other times it wasn’t. So if we’re going to err, we’re likely to err on the side. ”

During the Avs’ six-game losing streak at home in which they were outscored 28-9, they were 1-of-19 on the power play and just 15-of-22 on the penalty kill. In Colorado’s two ensuing victories at home it was 7-of-8 on the penalty kill and 1-of-9 on the power play. If the power play doesn ’ t work, all the difference can be made by a strong penalty kill. Which is the reason why the Avs don’t tinker with a power play that is slumping as much as they do with an unsuccessful penalty kill.

“You’re looking at it each night after your games and you’re pre-scouting other teams and how they’re having success against (your next competitor ),” Bednar said. “You try to find areas that you like from other team’s penalty kill and you steal it and see how they handle various situations and setups. If you discover something you think is working and makes sense, then you attempt to put it in and make alterations and alterations so it continues to improve. ”

It did improve in the last two games at home. The Avs were 4-for-4 on the PK against Vegas and 3-of-4 against Winnipeg, with the Jets’ power-play goal being scored off a mad scramble in the crease.

The Avs hope to continue to build off their PK momentum s home games against Florida and Vancouver.

Avalanche power play (rank)

House: 20.0 percent (17th)

Road: 24.0 percent (fifth)

Overall: 21.9 (eighth-T)

Avalanche penalty kill (rank)

House: 72.2 percent (30th)

Road: 81.3 percent (10th)

Overall: 77.2 (26th)

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