As the NHL playoffs are now officially way underway and the first games of the series have already finished Avalanche fans are already beginning to worry that it will be a repeat of last year’s playoff debacle.
In the first round of the 2023 Stanley Cup playoffs, the Colorado Avalanche after a dominant regular season were favored by many to repeat and win their second cup with this core. However, they were beaten by a Seattle Kraken team in their second year in existence.
The Avalanche lost in a heart-breaking game seven with the final tally being one to two. The entire league knew no one could keep up with the Avalanche but what the Avs weren’t ready for was the suffocating physicality of the Kraken that year. The Avs were simply bullied in every board, corner, net, and puck battle for the entire series.
The Avs realized this and decided to try and fix it by really emphasizing the more physical and stifling side.
This year the Avalanche did well again ranking third in the Central Western division and eighth in the entire league.
Much like the past few years, the Avalanche was aided by a historic offense headed by players breaking franchise records like they were nothing. Young Defenseman Cale Makar broke the record for the most points by a defenseman and Nathan MacKinnon breached the record for most points in a single season.
Nathan also came close to breaking the most consecutive home games with a point, only coming within five games of the Great Ones(Wayne Gretzky) record.
Along with these two having career years, the Avalanche also brought our goalie, Alexander Georgiev, to the all-star game for having led the league in wins for a while.
Although Alexander Georgiev made it to the all-star game many, including myself are still worried as he has been nothing special and even sub-par at times. With a sub-900 save percentage as well as over a 3.00 goals a game putting him outside the top 35 in both categories.
Georgiev’s case wasn’t helped at all after a terrible game one against the Jets where the Avs would lose seven to six and Georgiev only facing 20 shots.
The Avs were able to tie up the series with a victory in Winnipeg but even if we are able to pull through in what’s going to be a tight series the Avs still have to go through cup Western juggernauts in either Vegas or Dallas. Either way the Avs have to be able to trust their tender in net which many fans are struggling to do.
But in my humble, and very amateur opinion, the Avs have the firepower and the stars to make it far. But again I have not followed the NHL as much as I should, but as a fan I fear that the Avs might not have the depth and really the goaltending to win this year.
