With a record of 5-4-1 with 11 points and tied for third in the Central Division, there is an argument that the Colorado Avalanche could/should have more points, or even fewer, given how some of their games have gone.
With continued strong showings of 5-on-5 play and the stars of the team shining bright, but also a lack of defensive prowess in front of their own goalie and the continued disappointment on the power play, it's been an interesting showing these first 10 games.
Though looking at how they started this season, it shouldn’t be something that should make everyone panic, especially if you look back at the past couple of seasons and compare how they have started, even during their championship season in 2021-22.
From their championship season in 2021-22, here is how the Avalanche's first ten games started each season.
- 2021-2022: 4-5-1
- 2022-2023: 5-4-1
- 2023-2024: 7-3-0
- 2024-2025: 5-5-0
- 2025-2026: 5-1-4
- 2026-2027: 5-4-1
For better or for worse, this is something the Avalanche are familiar with. Each team, each year, started the season with certain things working for them and some things not.
Take the 2024-25 season, when they started 0-4-0 with a goal differential of minus-12 and were plagued with injuries at the start of the season, but still managed to finish with a record of 49-29-4, third in the Central.
Even this season, with the changes in the bottom-six and how well they have been playing, injuries have kept Logan O'Connor, Nicolas Roy, and Zachary L’Heureux out of the lineup. Often leaving the team having to run 11 forwards and seven defensemen.
While there is the argument that this team could have had a better record, especially if you take away the last two back-to-back games away, where they played arguably their worst two games of the season, and you add in individual performances, where Nathan MacKinnon showed his worst two games in his career since maybe his rookie season.
This is a team that made a lot of adjustments this past offseason to their forward group, and it hasn’t had a lot of time to gel together due to injuries. Even with the additions of Jaden Schwartz and Fedor Svechov, they've shown great things to start the season in the bottom six.
Even last season's Presidents' Trophy season showed a lot of cracks in the team's performance, but it was partially negated by them securing points in nine out of 10 games, either by coming back and forcing overtime or blowing the lead and heading into overtime with the four losses.
Lot of Hockey Left To Be Played
This isn’t to say that this team will just flip a switch and everything will be fine overnight, and things will miraculously turn out better. There are a lot of things that need to be improved that stand out on this team.
The faceoff is becoming an issue, with the Avalanche being 22nd in team faceoff percentage at 50.8%. They won 20 and lost 37 against the Devils; losing 35% of their faceoffs impacts both their offense and defense.
The power play, despite being three games into Brett McLean's tenure as the power play coach, is starting to look somewhat better, but still not living up to expectations with the caliber of players on the team.
Defensively, they still need to tighten up, and it does make it worse with the most recent games in people's minds how games just get away from them as they make mistakes or fail to convert on chances, but both Mackenzie Blackwood and Scott Wedgewood have kept them in games where they should have gotten at least a point out of it in overtime, if not more.
Though after all of that, there are still 74 games left in the season. Time and time again, the Avalanche have shown these past couple of seasons that, despite a rocky start, they find a way to string together a stretch of games that show why they're a Stanley Cup contending team and always will be with their current roster.
Though with how last season started and ended, with how this roster is built and the contracts and ages of these players, it's not about how the regular season goes. It's about getting to the playoffs and showing up when it matters.
A Presidents' Trophy is nice and all, but a Stanley Cup matters more.
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