The Colorado Avalanche’s uneven start this season has been hard to miss. With this much talent on the roster, the expectation is usually a team that takes control early and keeps control. Instead, the Avs have spent too many nights looking ordinary.
But there’s a case to be made that the problem isn’t only on Colorado. Once a team reaches elite status, it stops sneaking up on anyone.
It becomes the night everybody circles. Beating the Presidents’ Trophy winners, even if you’re sitting in last place, is the kind of result that can light up a locker room and give a struggling team something to hang onto.
That’s the reality Colorado is dealing with now. Teams like the Nashville Predators, and especially Ross Colton, have been coming at the Avalanche with an edge. Colton’s showing on Thursday night was a clear example of a player skating with a chip on his shoulder.
And he’s not alone. Around the league, opponents see the Avalanche as a measuring stick.
If a team can knock off Colorado, that win can feel like a turning point. Coaches understand it.
Leaders understand it. The message is simple: beat the Avs, and suddenly everybody in the room starts believing.
That leaves Colorado with one real fix for its inconsistency: play every game like the other side is trying to end its season. The Avalanche can’t afford to assume they’ll settle in later and sort things out.
They’re not necessarily coasting through nights, even if it looks that way at times. The bigger issue has been the way too many games have started. Opponents have come out fast, and Colorado has been slow to respond.
Most of the time, the Avalanche do find their rhythm eventually. But against teams like the Toronto Maple Leafs and the Columbus Blue Jackets earlier this season, the damage was already done by the time Colorado settled in. Those early holes were too deep to climb out of.
There’s also the defensive side of it. The Avalanche haven’t been able to cover up sloppy play in their own end, even when MacKenzie Blackwood has done enough to keep them in the fight. And when the starts are rough, Nathan MacKinnon and company haven’t always been able to simply outscore the problem.
So the answer may be less complicated than it looks. The Avalanche’s human-looking start could come down to a mindset adjustment - one that prevents those slow openings from happening in the first place.
That might be the biggest change they can make right now.
In Other News...
Avalanche May Have A Tough Lehkonen Decision Coming
Artturi Lehkonen is doing his part to make the Avalanches next contract conversation a complicated one. In the final year of his five-year deal, he has been productive again this season, and by all accounts he would like to remain in Colorado. For a team that has to keep one eye on the salary cap while sorting through a growing list of future decisions, that kind of player usually becomes both valuable and expensive.
Chris Johnston recently pointed out the bind the Avalanche could be facing: Lehkonens market value may be tough to match if Colorado wants to keep its books flexible. The result is an increasingly familiar NHL dilemma, where a useful, trusted forward can wind up caught between loyalty and economics. If the Avalanche cannot bridge that gap, the conversation could shift from an extension to whether Lehkonen is headed elsewhere or forced to consider a pay cut to stay put. [Read more 🡒]
Colorado Eagles Finally Got The Offensive Outburst Fans Needed
The Colorado Eagles finally got the kind of offensive night that can settle a crowd and ease some pressure, beating the Calgary Wranglers 6-4 in a game that featured plenty of scoring chances at both ends. Gavin Brindley and Tristen Nielsen each finished with three points, while Adam Beckman chipped in two goals to give Colorado the finishing touch it had been looking for.
Trent Miner did his part to steady things in net, turning aside 27 of 31 shots to earn the win as the Eagles kept pace in a game that never really let Calgary go quietly. For a team that has been waiting for its attack to break through, this was the sort of response that can matter beyond one night, especially with the schedule offering little time to dwell on it. [Read more 🡒]
Blackwood Gave The Avs Exactly What They Desperately Needed
Mackenzie Blackwood gave the Avalanche the kind of night they have been chasing, turning aside 27 shots for his first shutout of the season in a 4-0 win over the Detroit Red Wings. Colorado got plenty of help in front of him, scoring four times and cashing in three power-play goals, with Martin Necas driving the offense with two goals and two assists.
The bigger takeaway for Colorado was the balance it found in a game that had the right pieces working together. The special teams looked sharper, the scoring came in waves, and Blackwood settled things early with the kind of first-period work that can change the feel of a game before it ever gets away from a team. [Read more 🡒]