There are a lot of new faces on the Avalanche compared to the 2022 Stanley Cup-winning team but a few things feel vaguely familiar to this year's squad. While there are differences between the Colorado Avalanche Stanley Cup-winning team and this season's group — players being the most obvious — there are also a few significant resemblances. The current Avalanche team has seven games left to play this season and currently sits in the No. 2 spot in the Central Division with 100 points, three points behind the Dallas Stars. They have a 47-22-6 record with more success on home ice than on the road. Rewind to 2021-22 and the numbers look a bit similar — finished No. 1 in the division with 119 points and a 56-19-7 record. That year's team only lost five regulation games at Ball Arena. "We knew we had a really good team that year. But you just never know. It's so hard to win and it's gonna be tough this year," Nathan MacKinnon told The Hockey News' Colleen Flynn. "And we were great that year. I think we're really good this year as well. It's always good to have a chance." Colorado has been one of the top teams favored to win the Cup this season, even after captain Gabriel Landeskog announced he would miss the entire campaign [https://thehockeynews.com/nhl/colorado-avalanche/news/avalanche-captain-gabe-landeskog-will-miss-2023-24-season-remains-confident-about-future] due to knee cartilage surgery. "We're hopeful, we're optimistic, we know that the West this year especially is a tough road. We like our team, we like the way we're playing, we like a lot of aspects of it — the reality of it is it's going to come down to playing your best hockey at key times and that's every round, every game," head coach Jared Bednar said. "It's a long road to get to where we want to go. We feel like we could beat any opponent if we play the way we can play and we're at the top of our game, but they're going to have something to say about it too." The 2022 Avs had 22 comeback wins and a nine-game win streak from March 29 - April 16 — compared to this season's 26 comeback wins and nine-game win streak from March 4 - 24. Just before the trade deadline in 2022, Andrew Cogliano and Artturi Lehkonen were acquired which added depth to the team — not unlike the additions of Casey Mittelstadt, Sean Walker, Brandon Duhaime and Yakov Trenin just last month. "I feel like the depth we have this year is similar to that team. We have really good two lines up top and then the third and fourth lines can play against any line in the whole league," Mikko Rantanen told Flynn. "So we're not worried about, I feel like coaches are not worried about who to put against other teams' top lines because I know Trenin, Cogliano and whoever plays on the fourth line can play against them and do a good job. So yeah, I feel a lot of similarities." One notable difference from the two teams is in net. Darcy Kuemper started 57 games and split time with Pavel Francouz, who took most of the remaining load in the 2021-22 season with 18 starts. Justus Annunen and Jonas Johansson played a handful of games, as well. Alexandar Georgiev has started 57 games this season and will most likely start at least another four or five of the seven left to play. Annunen and Ivan Prosvetov both have played in 11 games this season with the former as the starter in 10 and the latter in eight. The teams may have similar traits and records, but it comes down to that consistent high-level play and winning mentality — which this team has shown quite a few times this season. RECENT COLORADO AVALANCHE NEWS Avalanche hit home run signing surging winger [https://thehockeynews.com/nhl/colorado-avalanche/latest-news/avalanche-hit-home-run-signing-surging-winger] Avalanche forward scores beautiful first goal of season [https://thehockeynews.com/nhl/colorado-avalanche/latest-news/avalanche-forward-scores-beautiful-first-goal-of-season]
