2017-18 record: 43-30-9 (95 points)
Lost to Nashville in Conference quarterfinals
Captain: Gabriel Landeskog
The 2017-18 Colorado Avalanche were a study in just how quickly narratives can change on a dime, as they went from the absolute worst team in the league that was in disarray two seasons ago to pushing Nashville to six games in last year's opening round. It's amazing just how much stability within the franchise matters, as key players rebounded to have career years and they now have a head coach that isn't a headcase. The question this year is whether or not the growth is for real or if it is fool's gold.
The Avalanche were the 10th best offense in the league, thanks to Nathan MacKinnon having a MVP-type season and Mikko Rantanen showing his skill in his sophmore year. However, this is still a relatively top heavy team offensively, and they didn't get a great amount of secondary scoring help in the off-season. Defensively, the Avalanche were near the league average, as there was finally structure in how the team played defensively to the point where notorious offensive defenseman Tyson Barrie had a passable year in his own end. They added grit both up front and on the back end, as Ian Cole and Matt Calvert were added to make the Avs tougher to play against. In goal, the two-headed monster of Jonathan Bernier and Semyon Varlamov were effective when healthy last year. Bernier moved on and is now replaced by Phillipp Grubauer, who is likely replacing Varlamov as starter next year, if not sooner, especially when Varlamov suffers his annual injury. What helped the Avalanche the most was stability behind the bench, as Jared Bednar was given his real chance to see what he can do and with his guys. That stability figures to help the team moving forward.
Prediction: 4th in the Central Division
The Avalanche needed the final day of the regular season to get into the playoffs, but thanks to another year of being wiser plus a few minor additions, they figure to be in the thick of the playoff race again and maybe this time, they won't need to play all 82 games to secure a playoff spot.
No comments:
Post a Comment