The Avalanche and Jets are confirmed first-round NHL playoff opponents.

Colorado might be in trouble.

An embarrassing 7-0 home loss Saturday afternoon emphasized the obvious: The Avs struggle against Winnipeg. They lost all four regular season matchups (0-4-0) by a margin of 17-4. The Jets have an inside track for home-ice advantage over Colorado in points — 106 to 104 — with two games left each before the postseason. The No. 3 seed appears likely.

Colorado Avalanche allow four goals in first period, fall 7-0 to Winnipeg in division battle

A silver lining? There is ample motivation to rebound when the postseason begins next weekend. Just don’t assume Hart Trophy frontrunner Nathan MacKinnon is buying stock in that narrative.

"No, I don't think so. It's the playoffs,” MacKinnon said. “Hopefully, we play our hardest regardless of what happened today."

Then again ...

“It should be in our memory,” defenseman Devon Toews said. “That’s embarrassing in our building to lose 7-0 in a game that means a lot for both teams. Especially us. We put on a poor performance for our fans. Now, it’s going to be a little more difficult. We’re probably going to have to start (the playoffs) on the road. … We had an opportunity to get home ice and we didn’t show up.”

The ugly Avalanche truth from this past week is difficult to ignore.

They had a window to still claim the Central Division last Sunday with a victory over the Stars. Colorado lost 7-4. They could have been a step closer to home-ice with a victory over the Jets. The Avs lost again. It’s easy to draw parallels between beatdowns.

Poor defensive details and execution led to quality scoring chances. Starting goalie Alexandar Georgiev, while mostly solid, failed to step up when needed most. MacKinnon can’t be expected to carry the team every game. On Saturday, the Avs were shutout for the fifth time this season.

“We just had two days off and really good practice,” coach Jared Bednar said. “That’s not fatigue. You’re not getting more rest than that in this league, ever. You can’t use that as an excuse. I thought we got outcompeted. … You can’t rest against a team like Winnipeg. As good as we think we are as a team, they’re ahead of us.”

Bednar, when asked about Georgiev, said, “He didn’t make the big save tonight. So, he’s grouped in with the rest of our team.” Bednar added that Georgiev will start Sunday in the second of back-to-back games at the Golden Knights.

The Avalanche are now 3-5-1 over their last nine games. But it’s not a sure sign of playoff failure. The Stanley Cup winning team went 1-5-1 to close the regular season in 2022. It’s not unreasonable to think they can turn it around again. But the Jets are uniquely qualified to slow them down.

Colorado’s penchant for comeback victories hasn’t worked against elite goaltending from Connor Hellebuyck and Winnipeg’s stingy defense. The Jets are deep offensively, too, with 12 different players scoring at least 30 points. The Avalanche are also 19-16-5 on the road this season.

How will they finally ground the Jets?

“We’re going to find out soon enough,” Bednar said. “It’s my job to be concerned when we’re giving up goals (and) chances that I don’t like that are repetitive mistakes. … I’m only not concerned with our team is cooking with gas and playing exactly the way I think they should play.”