There are few teams in the NHL as hot as the Colorado Avalanche. Aside from an odd shootout loss to the Montreal Canadiens, they have been winning left and right (seven of eight at this stage). They’ve also casually destroyed the Buffalo Sabres’ season not once, but twice.
Monday’s tilt with the Florida Panthers marked the beginning of a tough stretch. The Avalanche will face the Minnesota Wild (twice), Winnipeg Jets (twice), New York Rangers, Dallas Stars, and Edmonton Oilers over the next eight games. It’s a good thing they left for their road trip with a big 3-1 win over the Stanley Cup champions. The takeaways:
Toews Getting Hot
When talking about hot offensive performances from an offensively dominant team, who would think that we would be talking about the back end? More specifically, Devon Toews has found his offensive game of late and has proven to be a difference-maker.
Toews picked up a pair of goals and an assist on Monday night, giving him an impressive four-game point streak. He has seven points in that stretch (he also had three points against Buffalo on Jan. 2) and it’s a welcome addition to the lineup.
Hopefully, this is indicative of Toews finding his stride and not one of the various streaks he has had so far this season. Great teams like the Avalanche find contributions from all over the lineup and that’s what’s happening as Toews heats up.
Big Dog Point Streaks Continue
It may have been garbage time, but every goal matters. Mikko Rantanen’s empty netter with a little more than a minute to go all but sealed the closely contested game. It just goes to show that the biggest contributors on the team find a way to make a difference in the game.
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Nathan MacKinnon, leading the NHL in points, added to his total with his league-leading 52nd assist (he has 10 more than Mitch Marner, who is second). He also extended his point streak to eight games while Rantanen extended his to an incredible 14 games.
The Avalanche have three of the top 10 scorers in the league and Rantanen has quietly moved into third, just one behind Leon Draisaitl for second. The duo is more dominant than it has ever been before, even when they aren’t having multi-point nights.
Power Play Struggling
The one thing worth pointing out as a negative has been the performance of the power play. They are still tied for 10th in the NHL at a 23.6% rate, but it has been a steady decline over the last few weeks and that is troubling.
There is too much talent on the power play to struggle for long and many feel like it is just a matter of time before they find their stride. They do press from time to time, especially when trailing, which leads to a bit of predictability.
There’s nothing to panic about just yet. Even good teams go through streaks where they can’t buy a goal on the power play and that seems to be the case for the Avalanche. The studs will find their groove and make it dangerous again.
The Gap Is Shrinking
The Jets and Wild have been average of late and the Avalanche are closing the gap. They are three points back of the Wild for second place in the Central Division and just five back of the Jets. Given the start to the season for the Jets and Avalanche, it seemed almost implausible that the Avalanche could catch them.
The Avalanche are 8-1-1 in their last 10 games, but they face a testing stretch. If they can come out on the other side with wins in five of eight – including most of the divisional matchups – it could set the table for them to be a threat for the division.
