Does the “core” deserve bulk of blame for Avalanche’s failures?

During the Colorado Avalanche’s recent losing skid, there’s been a large amount of talk about the viability of the Avalanche’s core players – Nathan MacKinnon, Matt Duchene, Gabe Landeskog, Erik Johnson, Tyson Barrie, and Semyon Varlamov – moving forward.

After two seasons without playoffs, much of the blame has been laid at the feet of those six individuals, including from the departed former head coach, Patrick Roy. With another early golf season looming, they’ve come under intense scrutiny once more.

But are they to blame for the incredibly disappointing start to this season? Or are they serving as a scapegoat for something else instead?

To find out, I compared the core players to their…