Fact or Fiction? The Colorado Avalanche Are Still Contenders

By: Jesse Rosales

Colorado Avalanche Preseason Hype

Winning back-to-back Championships in the NHL is more difficult than in any other professional sport. It’s only happened 3 times since the 91′-92′ Pittsburgh Penguins. Coming off the impressive Stanley Cup Championship run last season, many thought the Colorado Avalanche were in a prime position to make a run at a repeat title. They suffered some expected personnel losses in Nazem Kadri and Andre Burakovsky, but otherwise, the core of the team was largely kept intact. Vegas had the Avalanche as the favorites to win the Cup in the preseason betting markets and no one really questioned if there would be any significant decline in their results. That, however, is not how the season has played out so far.

Injuries and Early Struggles

There are a few checkpoints throughout the NHL season that everyone keeps in the back of their mind to see how teams are doing and where they might end up. American Thanksgiving is one of those checkpoints, the All-Star break is another, and then of course the trade deadline. Usually, by Thanksgiving break, you know if a team is treading towards landing a playoff spot, or closer to planning a late spring family vacation to the Bahamas. For the Avs, Thanksgiving didn’t leave them a whole lot to feel thankful for. They were in the bottom half of the league in total points, far back from even a Wild Card spot, and they had more minor-league players covering for injured players than anyone ever thought would be needed. The injuries were all over the board. Strong backup goaltender Francouz was out. Key defensemen Bo Bryam and Josh Manson were out. Star forwards Artturi Lehkonen and Valeri Nichushkin were out. And of course, what I consider to be the biggest impact of all the injuries, Avs captain Gabriel Landeskog.

All of a sudden everyone blinked and this team was a DRASTICALLY different team than what was expected coming into the season. If things seemed like they couldn’t get any worse, they certainly did. Nathan Mackinnon was added to the injury list and that left Mikko Rantanen and Cale Makar as the main guys to carry the entire load of a team that had repeat Stanely Cup Champion aspirations. Shout out to Rantanen specifically. “The Moose” as he is called, has truly carried the load offensively for this team. He always has been a top contributor so it wasn’t a complete surprise that he stepped up, but to think he is currently top 5 in goals scored and top 10 in total points is truly impressive and admirable. The team continued to slide, however, despite there being no doubt the effort was there each and every night. Coach Bedard alluded to it on several occasions that this team was going to have to learn how to win in new ways. Last year was about speed, offense, and firepower. This roster was just not capable of delivering that.

The Avs went 7- 10 in the month of December and through January 5th. Clinging on to hopes of staying in the hunt for a playoff spot while dreams of winning the President’s Cup with the most points, or even winning their division, were fading faster than the sun on any given cold winter evening. Then everything started to change. On January 7th, the Avalanche put together one of their most gritty performances of the year. They played on the road in Edmonton against a very good Oilers team, after losing to a very bad Vancouver Canucks team 2 nights earlier. They beat the Oilers 3-2 in overtime on a goal from Cale Makar, as he finished a night in which he had over 33 minutes of ice time. Mackinnon was back, Lehkonen was back, and it felt like this team could start something special.

Back On Track

Since then the Avalanche have won 6 of their last 8 games and are currently on a 6-game winning streak after beating the Washington Capitals at home. What’s more is the quality wins included in that run over Calgary, Washington, and Seattle, who was one of the hottest teams over the past 30 days. The Avs have shot up the standings and are currently 3rd in the division and only 9 points out of first place. Looking ahead the schedule is setting up nicely for them to continue to not only keep winning but to also get players healthy. The Avalanche need to keep riding this momentum to the All-Star break next week.

Multiple team sources have said other key injured players like Bo Byram and Josh Manson could return to the team shortly after the All-Star break which would be huge for this team. The last missing piece in the puzzle is Landeskog. He is the heartbeat of this team. He knows exactly what his role is and when the team needs something from him whether it’s a fight, a goal, a hard shift, or sacrificing his body, he is always willing to give it everything he has. The mark of a true leader and captain. They simply cannot repeat as Champions without him. Luckily, it sounds like Lando will be starting to resume skating shortly after the All-Star break as well. This sets up nicely for him to come back to the team with plenty of time to get into playoff hockey shape.

While this Colorado Avalanche team may not be where everyone expected them to be at this point in the season, they are perhaps learning new skills, new habits, and new traits that could enable them to actually go on and repeat as Stanley Cup Champions. All teams must evolve over time and this team has had to do it out of necessity. They say everything happens for a reason, and perhaps Coach Bedard was onto something when he mentioned the team needing to find new ways to win. If they truly have done that, this team could be even more dangerous than they were last season. The rest of the league better take notice…. there is an Avalanche warning out in the distance and it’s coming fast.