Despite dominating the NHL, the Colorado Avalanche's Achilles' Heel – a sputtering power play – threatens their Stanley Cup aspirations. Can the Avs fix their power play before it's too late?
The Colorado Avalanche have been the class of the NHL this season, marauding their way through the first 49 games of the season and going 34-6-9. By just about every metric and eye test, the Avalanche are tremendous.
There’s a reason why this Avs team has eight more standings points than the next-best team in the league; they’ve been dominant at a level rarely seen in hockey’s best league.
Ah, but there’s always something, right? No team flies through the grind of the regular season without some sort of turbulence. You have to be realistic and look at improving, no matter where you are in the standings. And amid the Avalanche’s run of excellence is an Achilles Heel – and it’s their power play.
For as good as the Avs have been this season, they’ve lost four of their past five games. And in that span, their power play has gone 2-for-17, baffling stuff.
Colorado’s power play this season is the NHL’s sixth-worst at 16.1 percent efficiency. While it’s also true the Avalanche are a fantastic team when they’re playing at 5-on-5, longtime hockey fans know that special teams can be the deciding factor when games matter most. So, although the Avs have the league’s second-best penalty kill this season at 84.4 percent, their woes with the man-advantage could be what sinks their Stanley Cup playoff aspirations.
In their first-round, seven-game playoff loss to the Dallas Stars last spring, the Avalanche had the fifth-worst penalty kill of any playoff team at 69.6 percent. But Colorado’s power play was even worse, with the Avs posting a 13.6 percent, which was the third-worst of any post-season team.
Nathan MacKinnon leads all NHL players in 5-on-5 points (51), and Cale Makar ranks second among defenseman (28) (Isaiah J. Downing-Imagn Images)Colorado coach Jared Bednar no doubt understands that his power play has to be considerably better. Because if this proves to be what prematurely ends their year for the third straight season, there are going to be questions about Bednar’s future behind the Avs’ bench.
It’s hard to believe a team so potent offensively – with Grade-A players including Nathan MacKinnon, Martin Necas, Cale Makar, and Brock Nelson – can experience such futility when they’re up a man. But that’s the nagging reality for Colorado right now, and it’s costing them wins that have otherwise come so often earlier this year.
The Avalanche project to have $3.4 million in salary cap space to use at this season’s March 6 trade deadline. And they have an obvious need to address. A power-play specialist is the kind of player who would help end Colorado's woes with the extra man.
If the Avs do tie a bow on that issue and clean up their last remaining sub-par area, they’re going to be nearly impossible to defeat.
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