Now if you have any interest in the Avs this year you would probably hear that they are top three in the entire league and top of the Central Division again and all around they are just awesome like last year.
And that’s true, the Avs for about the fourth consecutive year are just laying waste to the league once again. And when you look at the team you can see why.
It starts off with by far the unanimous top line in all of hockey, Nathan MacKinnon, Mikko Rantanen, and Jonathan Druid. Usually, it should be Mikko and Nathan with the team’s captain Gabriel Landeskog, but he is out for the entire season with an entire knee cartilage replacement.
To replace him the Avalanche signed Jonathan Druid Nathan’s former junior teammate whose been filling the role quiet nicely tallying double-digit goals and assists.
Now the reason why this is the undisputed best line in hockey is the dynamic duo of Mikko Rantanen and Nathan MacKinnon. Both are coming off downright amazing seasons last year with Nathan scoring over 100 points and Mikko scoring the franchise’s first 50 goal season since the 2002-2003 season, and they did not even miss a beat.
Mikko is having another all-star season on pace to eclipse over 80 points and Nathan in a two-way race with Tampa Bay’s Nikita Kucherov for the league’s point leader with the next closest being double digits away.
Another reason for the continued success is the continued dominance by the all-star Cale Makar, breaking all of the Avs D-records and our depth is unmatched by most in the league.
And with the return of various key pieces from injury such as the non-stop freight train Artturi Lehkonen and young D Bown Byram. With the emergence of Logan O’Connor and the return of Lehkonen the Avalanche are looking very dangerous and nye unstoppable especially once Val gets back.
The only thing that is separating this year’s Avalanche from years prior and even from the year we won it all is the goaltending.
Our number one goalie at the start of the season Pavel Francouz got hurt very early in November and is slated to miss the entirety of the remaining schedule making our new number one being the 27-year-old from Ruse, Alexander Georgiev.
And Alecander ddi not shy away from being thrusted into such a difficult position leading the entire NHL in wins with 27 and being the third Avs player to be named to the NHL All-Stars and just the second ever Avs goalie ever, the only other one being the great Patrick Roy.
However, it is not out the question to say Georgiev is being carried by the amazing team around him as he has an abysmal .898 save percentage, beating out only Ottawas Joonas Korpisalo for goalies who have played over 30 games played. Georgiev also has a 2.91 goals-against average which although is high doesn’t compare to others in the league with many being well over 3.
A defence for Alex is that he has faced the second most shots in the entire league with 1133 shots faced.
I am by no means saying Georgiev isnt a good option as he leads the league in wins and is an all-star for a reason, but it would be interesting to see how easily the Avs would be running away with the number one seed with a goalie such as Connor Hellebuyck or even getting Frankie back.
But even with all of the injuries at key positions and weird goal tending the Avs still look unstoppable and I am personally very excited to see what happens after the All-Star break is done and the season begins to wind down to playoff time.
