Coming into Saturday’s matchup with the St. Louis Blues, there may not have been two hotter teams in the league. The Colorado Avalanche had won 12 of their last 14 games, while the Blues had won their last eight games in a quest to earn a wild card spot in the Western Conference.
Despite dominant performances against the Los Angeles Kings and Detroit Red Wings, the Avalanche could not keep the momentum rolling. The Blues got a late goal from Pavel Buchnevich to steal the game from the Avs. These are the takeaways.
The Great Trophy Race(s)
You can’t talk about the Avalanche without mentioning their two biggest stars. Cale Makar is in the hunt for the Norris Trophy, while Nathan MacKinnon – who scored the Avalanche’s only goal – is seeking out his first Art Ross Trophy as the league’s scoring champion.
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After an impressive Saturday, the Tampa Bay Lightning’s Nikita Kucherov is now tied with MacKinnon for first in the NHL with 109 points. He has a higher points-per-game average as well. There are times when MacKinnon almost seems to slow down from the weight of carrying this team in the early stages of the season.
Makar, meanwhile, is way ahead in the race for the highest-scoring defenseman. He leads the league in goals (27), assists (57), and points (84) by a defenseman, and has seemingly taken the reins in the Norris Trophy race. Both should be finalists for major hardware, and some would consider them favorites as well.
No One Wants to Play the Blues
Sometimes, you just run into hot teams that no one wants to play. The Blues are one of those teams right now. Coming in, they had won eight in a row, beating some soft teams along the way but also handling teams like the Minnesota Wild and Montreal Canadiens.
The Blues are not only outscoring teams – they scored fewer than four goals just once over those eight games – but playing complete, two-way hockey. It is eerily reminiscent of 2019, when they went on a run after being in last place and wound up winning the Stanley Cup.
While the story may not have quite the ending that 2019 did, this is a dangerous Blues team. If they can continue their run through the end of the regular season, no one is going to want to see them in the first round of the playoffs.
Leaning on the Top Lines
If there is one complaint about the Avalanche and head coach Jared Bednar, it is the reliance on the top two lines. MacKinnon, Jonathan Drouin, Artturi Lehkonen, and Valeri Nichushkin all played over 20 minutes.
While that’s understandable, playing guys like Charlie Coyle, Jack Drury, and Ross Colton less than 10 minutes feels like an imbalance. Sure, go with the guys who brought you there, but it feels like an over-reliance on the top six.
It also feels like a way to burn guys out before the playoffs. When things get tougher, you have to lean on those guys. But burning them out during the stretch will reduce their effectiveness. It’s something to be cognizant of going forward.
The Stretch Run
With eight games to go, the Avalanche trail the Dallas Stars by seven points for second place in the Central Division. That’s out the window at this point, especially given that the Stars have won five in a row and could very well overtake the Winnipeg Jets (104 points to the Stars’ 100 points) before all is said and done.
The focus should be on playing solid two-way hockey down the stretch and taking momentum with them into the playoffs. Whether it be the Jets or Stars, things are going to be tough from the start. Go into the playoffs playing your best hockey, and you have nothing else to worry about.
