An Avalanche of Goals and Wins

I have been a fan of the Colorado Avalanche since the team's final two seasons as the Quebec Nordiques. Since the move, the Avalanche have won two Stanley Cups, but it has been a long road back to the prominence this team had back in the late 1990s/early 2000s. The resurrection surprisingly began with a three team trade on November 5, 2017, and just like that, the Avalanche became a playoff team. Here it is, barely over four years later, and now, I am happy to say, the Avalanche we remember from yesteryear, are back.

Among the many reasons why I was so eager for this season was because it's a full season again, and another is the fact that this Avalanche team was coming off an absolute playoff letdown--a second round loss to the Vegas Golden Knights. The offseason was quite surprising; losing Brandon Saad to the Blues, losing Philipp Grubauer (free agency) and Joonas Donskoi (expansion draft) to the Seattle Kraken, but gaining Darcy Kuemper to take Grubauer's place. It looked iffy for the Avalanche at the start of the season; October was not a good month for the team, but the team picked it up a bit in November and December. However, January has been the booming month for the Avalanche this season.

At the halfway point of their season, the Avalanche are 30-8-3 with 63 points in the standings. The point total ties the Florida Panthers atop the standings, but due to having a pair of games in hand, the Avalanche are the #1 team in the entire NHL. So how did the Avs get to this point? Simple. All they had to do was avoid losing in regulation for the month of January. After losing to the Nashville Predators on December 16, the Avalanche went on an extended break (as did many teams) caused by an outbreak of the Omicron variant of COVID-19. The Avalanche returned to play on January 2, and defeated the Ducks. Since then, the team hasn't lost in regulation, going 13-0-1 in the 14 games played. This includes three shutout wins, a number of comeback victories, and four wins in overtime. The Avalanche became the first team this season to reach 30 wins, and it only took 41 games to get there.

Regarding team stats, the Avalanche are the highest scoring team in the league, scoring 4.10 goals per game (the Panthers are the only other team scoring four goals per game). Their goals against had been a concern, but they are climbing the ladder in that regard, as the recent shutout wins have decreased their GAA to under 3.00. Regarding special teams, the Avalanche's Power Play percentage is 24.8 percent, which is 9th in the league, but their Penalty Kill is a big concern--only 75%, one of the lowest in the league. They do make up for it by scoring six shorthanded goals this season, which is tied for the league lead.

The points leader on the team? Not Nathan MacKinnon. Not Gabriel Landeskog. Not Mikko Rantanen. That honor this season goes to Nazem Kadri, who is in his third season with the Avalanche after playing his first nine with the Toronto Maple Leafs. Kadri's offensive onslaught came during the period where Nathan MacKinnon was sidelined, but even after MacKinnon's return, Kadri continued racking up the points--55 of them, to be exact. Not only is he leading the team in points, but he's in the top five in the entire league, behind players like the Edmonton Oilers' dynamic duo, Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl. Kadri's best season was his 2017-18 campaign, which saw him rack up 61 points, so he will clearly eclipse that total. Kadri's season resulted in his first-ever NHL All-Star selection, as he was voted in as the last member of the Central Division's team.

Behind Kadri in points is Mikko Rantanen with 49, though 22 of those points are goals, giving him the lead on the Avalanche. Nathan MacKinnon has 43 points (9G/34A) in 31 games played, but the other main story is Cale Makar. Makar, a Norris finalist last season (still don't know how he didn't win it), has 41 points, but 17 of them are goals. He is not only leading Avalanchc defensemen in goals, he is leading all defensemen in that category. If you add up the goal totals of the other two finalists, Victor Hedman and trophy winner Adam Fox, it's still less than Cale's total. Avalanche defensemen have scored 41 goals this season! That's literally a goal per game! No other team's blue-liners have more than Colorado.

I was heartbroken when the Avs lost Grubauer, but I was happy when the team got Darcy Kuemper. The reason is this: I still remember Kuemper's performance against the Avs in the bubble; particularly Game One of that series. That game saw Kuemper hold it down for the most part, stopping shot after shot after shot, while his Arizona Coyotes teammates couldn't get to Grubauer. For every one save Grubauer had in that game, Kuemper had about three to five until Kadri cracked him. He was the only thing trying to hold the Coyotes up, but he couldn't do it anymore. Now Kuemper's on a team that has an embarrassment of riches on it, and he can have those laid back games, but he can also be counted on to be the stopper if need be.

Kuemper's season has been an interesting one. There have been concerns, but despite them, Kuemper has 20 wins this season, which ties him with Jack Campbell (TOR) and Igor Shesterkin (NYR). His GAA is 2.63, which is good, considering he's on a team that scores four goals a game, and he has a SV% of .913--also good. Kuemper does have one shutout this season, but his main backup, Pavel Francouz, has two, as well as a 6-1 record in seven starts. Francouz's long overdue return has helped the goaltending issue so far, and has played a role in the Avs' winning tear.

The Avalanche are on a 60-win pace, but what matters is what happens beyond the 82 games played. The last three seasons have ended with a second-round exit; hopefully, this team can live up to their role as the Cup favorites, and win the whole thing for the first time in 21 years.

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