The Colorado Avalanche’s uneven start has raised a question that is hard to ignore: are they running on empty?
That’s the concern at the center of their “unenergetic” and inconsistent play this season. The idea is that the Avalanche may be feeling the effects of years of heavy lifting, much the way the Florida Panthers did after three straight trips to the Stanley Cup Final. Florida eventually bottomed out in the Eastern Conference last season, with injuries piling up and the wear and tear showing in a bottom-10 finish.
No one is saying Colorado is headed for that kind of collapse. But the possibility of fatigue setting in is worth watching.
A lot of the burden has landed on the same core pieces over and over again. Brent Burns is 41 and still carrying a remarkable Ironman streak.
Cale Makar has not missed time, even after dealing with the shoulder injury late last season and in the playoffs. Nathan MacKinnon, Nazem Kadri, Gabe Landeskog, Artturi Lehkonen, Devon Toews, Josh Manson and even Martin Necas have all logged major mileage over the last couple of years.
That kind of workload adds up.
The toll may be even heavier when you factor in the extra hockey that came for MacKinnon, Makar, Toews, Lehkonen, Necas and Landeskog during the 4 Nations Face-Off in 2025 and the Olympics in 2026. The Avalanche’s core has been the group taking on that added burden, and that’s why the current stretch looks like the bill may finally be coming due.
Jared Bednar is not off the hook here, either.
It’s easy to point at the coach when things look off, and in this case he does deserve some of the blame. When a team is struggling, the responsibility belongs to the coaching staff, the front office and the players, and all three have a hand in Colorado’s “weird” early-season performances.
Bednar’s reliance on an 11-7 setup may have made the problem worse by adding more ice time to an already worn-down core. The Avalanche have healthy forwards available, and the organization has recently called up Gavin Brindley and Taylor Makar. But if those players are only getting around eight minutes a night, what is the point?
The ask now is simple: Bednar needs to settle into four steady lines. If he does not trust the bottom six enough to do that, then it falls to Joe Sakic to go find the piece required to make it work.
Wednesday night could offer a small opening for a reset. The Avalanche finally have a few days between games, and that extra time off may give everyone a chance to recover after Sunday night’s disastrous showing in Nashville.
In Other News...
Avalanche Just Showed The Problem Fans Keep Fearing
A bad night at home can look different from one team to the next, but for the Avalanche it came with the kind of problems that tend to linger in a long season. Colorado jumped in front early against Nashville and still walked away with a 6-2 loss, getting outshot 35-21 and watching the game slip away as the Predators kept finding answers. The power play had chances to swing momentum back, yet the Avalanche went scoreless on four opportunities and never fully recovered from the early collapse.
The more troubling part was how often the cracks showed when Colorado was trying to kill penalties, because Nashville cashed in four times on seven man-advantage chances. That kind of special teams gap is the sort of issue fans notice fast, especially when it comes on a night when the building should have been an advantage. Even a late benching of Fedor Svechkov in the third period did little to change the tone, and now the Avalanche move on to a home date with the New Jersey Devils looking for a much cleaner response. [Read more 🡒]
Avalanche Pipeline Took Another Tough Turn After Costly Eagles Mistakes
The Colorado Eagles had a promising start before things quickly unraveled in a 4-1 loss to the Bakersfield Condors, a result that left another mark on the Avalanche pipeline. Nikita Prishchepov supplied the lone goal for Colorado, but the rest of the night belonged to Bakersfield after the teams were tied 1-1.
Aku Raty powered the Condors with two goals, and Nathan Day picked up his first win of the season with 28 saves. Colorado goaltender Trent Miner faced 30 shots and allowed four goals, as the Eagles could not recover once Bakersfield strung together three unanswered tallies. [Read more 🡒]
Avalanche Were In Trouble Early For One Frustrating Reason
The Avalanche spent much of the night chasing the game after Nashville raced out to a 3-0 lead through the first two periods. Filip Forsberg, Steven Stamkos and Ryan O'Reilly all found the net for the Predators, while Colorado kept running into the kind of self-inflicted trouble that can bury a team fast in a tight divisional game.
Turnovers were a problem, and the power play never gave Colorado the lift it needed to get back on track. The second period brought a flurry of penalties and even a fight, but the Predators kept control anyway, leaving the Avalanche to sort through an evening that never found much rhythm. [Read more 🡒]