I’m starting to think the defending champions will be defending their Stanley Cup on their couches. The Colorado Avalanche have had a season mired by injuries and inconsistency, leaving their playoff hopes in real jeopardy as they cling to the 3rd Central Division spot.
Injuries truly are the bane of all championship contending and winning sides.
From looking nigh unstoppable in last season and beating a would-be dynasty in the Tampa Bay Lightning in the playoffs, the Colorado Avalanche have looked dysfunctional, disjointed, and straight up lost on far too many occasions this season to dream of repeating as the Stanely Cup Champion.
Even with the Central Division being the worst Western Conference division this season, the Colorado Avalanche have still struggled to cement a stranglehold on the division title. In fact, the Avalanche are barley clinging on to the 3rd seed in the Central as the Winnipeg Jets, who have had their own troubles this season, are level on points (74) with the Avs but trail in head-to-head matchups.
The only reason why the defending Stanely Cup champions aren’t sitting in a Wild Card spot a month before the playoffs start is because they beat a Winnipeg team that has won one playoff round in the last four years a few times. That’s not good enough.
Still, I will give the Avs some leeway as they’ve been hit hard with injuries this season to key players, which has contributed to their plumet down the standings.
Even as I’m writing this article, captain Gabriel Landeskog (30 G, 31 A, 51 PTS), Josh Manson (2 G, 8 A, 10 PTS, +/- 13), Erik Johnson (0 G, 7 A, 7 PTS, +/- 12), Kurtis MacDermid (0 G, 4 A, 4 PTS, +/- -2), and Pavel Francouz (7 W, 2.53 GAA, .919 SV%, 1 SO) are all out with injuries, while Cale Maker (13 G, 33 A, 46 PTS), the reigning Norris Trophy and Conn Smythe winner, just returned to the lineup a few days ago after a serious concussion.
Obviously, Colorado losing three of its Top-6 pairing defenders, the backup goaltender, a depth defender, and the captain of the team (and also a bonified superstar) for extended periods of time was always going to limit the Avs winning capabilities, but the play of the offense has also not been good enough.
Sure, the Avs currently have the 3rd best GF in the Central division with 195 goals scored (GF) so far, but the Central division has by far the worst average GF across all four divisions. As of today, the Atlantic division has team’s averaging 209.63 goals thus far, the Metropolitan has a 195.13 average, and the Pacific has 204.88 goals averaged/team.
Do you know what is the Central Division’s average GF/team? 184.38
That’s a little under 10 full goals scored less than the Metropolitan teams, 20.5 goals less than Pacific teams, and a whopping 25.25 goals less than the Atlantic teams.
And when you consider the fact Colorado has 11 one-goal game losses this season, scoring almost 20-35 goals less than half the league is a massive issue.
Clearly, the Avs fall into a larger divisional problem for all the Central teams as they just haven’t been scoring at the same rate as their conference and league counterparts, and a large part of that comes down to the Avs lack of secondary scoring.
Valeri Nichushkin (11 G, 17 A, 28 PTS), J.T. Compher (13 G, 29 A, 42 PTS), Matt Nieto (3 G, 0 A, 3 PTS as an Avalanche), Andrew Cogliano (10 G, 7 A, 17 PTS), Logan O’Conner (7 G, 14 A, 21 PTS), Evan Rodrigues (12 G, 17 A, 29 PTS), Alex Newhook (13 G, 12 A, 25 PTS), and Artturi Lehkonen (17 G, 26 A, 43 PTS) all have under 50 points, while only Compher and Lehkonen have broken the 40-point barrier.
Bringing in Lars Eller to help facility some secondary offense down the middle should be a big boost, but the Avs’ 2nd and 3rd lines better start scoring more or else an early playoff exit is in their future.
But, as I just said, I still believe the Avs will be able to make the playoffs and defend their 2022 Stanely Cup win.
Them getting past the teams in their own division and conference is an entirely different story, but the Avalanche proved last year that nothing is impossible with Nathan MacKinnon, Gabriel Landeskog, Cale Makar, and Mikko Rantanen in one’s lineup.
Images Source: Featured Image:
