The three teams at the top of the NHL's Central Division are dominating the league. Will anyone be able to beat the Colorado Avalanche, Dallas Stars and Minnesota Wild?
Now that the NHL’s post-holiday break is over and hockey is back, one thing is clear – the best teams in the league are all in the Central Division – and the road to the Stanley Cup goes through the Central.
To acknowledge how dominant the three teams at the top of the Central really are, look at the stat that counts the most: their standings point totals. The incredible Colorado Avalanche are 28-2-7 for 63 points and top spot in the Central, and they’ve won seven games in a row and are 9-0-1 in their past 10 games.
The Dallas Stars are in second in the division with a 25-7-7 mark and 57 points, and they’re 6-2-2 in their past 10. And the Minnesota Wild are in third place with a 23-10-6 record and 52 points, and they’re also 8-1-1 in their past 10.
It isn’t just that the Avs, Stars and Wild make up the top three in the entire league that tells you how the Central is a murderer’s row – it’s the degree of domination we’re seeing from those three teams that makes this trio so dangerous.
For instance, the Avalanche have 18 more points than the Pacific Division-leading Vegas Golden Knights. Let us write that again – the Avs have 18 more points than the *best* team in the Pacific. And Colorado has 14 more points than the best teams in the Eastern Conference. That is just stunning.
But it’s also stunning that Dallas has kept close to the Avalanche. The Stars have only lost twice on the road in regulation (13-2-5), and they’ve lost only two games in a row twice since Nov. 4. Now, the Avs have two games in hand on Dallas, and the Stars are going to be hard-pressed to overtake Colorado and carve out home-ice advantage throughout the playoffs. But Dallas did beat the Avalanche in last year’s post-season, so don’t think for a minute the Avs are taking them for granted.
Finally, the Wild have one of the NHL’s top defenses, averaging just 2.59 goals-against per game. And of course, they just added one of the league’s best defenseman in former Vancouver Canucks superstar Quinn Hughes.
You can make a compelling argument that Minnesota has arguably the NHL’s best defense corps – but you could also make that same argument about Colorado’s ‘D’ corps. It’s no wonder, then, that the Wild have a Mission: Impossible of sorts in trying to get ahead of the Avalanche and Stars. But they’re still better than the rest of the league.
For those reasons, it feels like there are two different NHL leagues at the moment. There is a 29-team league that’s got a lot of parity and mediocrity, but there’s also another NHL that’s a three-team race who are unquestionably a cut above the rest. It will be intriguing to see what the GMs of the Avs, Stars and Wild will do to bulk up their attack in advance of the March 6 trade deadline.
To that end, Colorado GM Chris MacFarland currently has $2.74 million in cap space, but that number grows to $7.33 million by the deadline. Dallas counterpart Jim Nill has $3.26 million in cap space both now and at the deadline. Minnesota GM Bill Guerin has $4.93 million in cap space now, and $12.92 million at the deadline.
To keep up with the arms race, it’s fair to expect that all three GMs will be using just about every dollar available to them. That’s going to mean that the Wild, Stars and Avalanche will all be even better than they are right now. There’s a frightening thought for the rest of the league.
If you’re one of the other five teams in the Central, you’re already looking at a wild card playoff berth as your only real option for post-season action this year. Colorado, Dallas and Minnesota are not only the class of the division, but they’re the standard-bearers for the entire league.
Unless the injury bug decides to decimate their roster, the class of the Central are going to rightfully be the odds-on favorites to win this year’s Cup.
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