At 50-14-6, the Colorado Avalanche are the first Western Conference team and the second team overall (Florida Panthers) to clinch a playoff berth, with 12 games left in the 2022 regular season. The Avs are a comfortable 15 points ahead of the Minnesota Wild for the Central division, and 13 points ahead of the Calgary Flames for the number one seed in the Western Conference. Last year, the Avalanche had a goal of securing the Presidents Trophy, as the top points team in the entire NHL, this season they chose to have the Stanley Cup as their only goal, but they currently sit two points ahead of the Panthers for the Presidents Cup as well.

The tail end of the season is about getting healthy, getting into playoff shape, and getting ready to win the franchise’s third Stanley Cup. The Avs have started in the right direction of getting healthy, returning Bowen Byram from a long hiatus stemming from concussions and mental health. Bowen is an absolute difference maker that is young, talented, and now incredibly fresh having skipped most of the slog of the regular season. He can step in and provide a strong defensive presence as well as hit the back of the net on occasion.

Nazem Kadri and Gabriel Landeskog are both healing from injury, but both are expected to be ready come playoff time, as indicated by the Colorado Avalanche official injury report. The final 12 games of the season will be about keeping our guys healthy, holding our top seed for the playoffs, possibly earning a back-to-back president’s trophy (but not the focus), and hitting their stride for the important part of the season. There have been reports that Samuel Girard is close to making his return from injury as well:

With a healthy Roster, many NHL fans believe this season’s finals is destined to be a faceoff between the Colorado Avalanche and the Florida Panthers, based on both club’s dominance during the regular season. A contest that would be an incredible rematch of the Finals for the Avalanche’s first Championship season in 1996. However, as most of us Avalanche fans are aware, that teams don’t just get to a Stanley Cup Finals based on their regular season dominance, they must have a second gear and be able to conquer the beast that is the NHL playoffs.

The Avalanche are all business this season, at the trade deadline they ramped up on physicality and toughness, prioritizing these traits along with all around skill players. The ability to hit, dish out punishment, check at the blue line, and maintain leads using physicality, are all necessary for a championship caliber team. This last week they resigned Kurtis McDermid to be a long-term tough guy, inking a two-year deal with the Avalanche.  Core players Cale Makar, Mikko Rantanen and Nathan MacKinnon have been really hitting their stride these last few weeks picking up the slack of missing their Captain Gabriel Landeskog and their top points player Nazem Kadri the last few games.

The Avalanche have been the most talented teams in the league for the last few years. They have had the best top line in hockey for the last few years. They have had solid if not top level goaltending and defense in the last few years… but something has been missing through the last two playoff pushes.

This team seems to have the pieces in place to solve the puzzle this year, they have the talent, the goaltending, the defense, the focus, the passion, the physicality, the “don’t back down” attitude and they have been able to sustain greatness regardless of which star player was out for an extended period. The Avalanche of 2022 had one goal when the puck dropped for the first game of the season, win a Stanley Cup. Anything less than that will be considered a disappointment, and the entire roster top to bottom truly believes this. Stanley Cup Contender windows do not stay open indefinitely, and when the playoffs start, I believe the Avs will capitalize on the opportunity to be world champions again!

About Post Author

Aaron Hubert

Major Colorado sports fan who was once, for an entire year, a paid writer covering the entire Colorado sports scene. I grew up in Fort Collins, Colorado, a huge fan of all the professional sports Colorado had to offer. I played Football and Basketball in High School. I attended Colorado State University for undergrad, earning my degree in Business with a concentration in Computer Information Systems. I work as a professional Product Manager in the software development space for Fanatics.com the sports apparel company. I am a Fantasy Football and Fantasy Hockey participant, not sure if that will ever be worked into these writings, but keeping my option open! I really enjoy the process of being a huge fan of sports, being a passionate Colorado sports advocate, and using social media and writing to express my beliefs and opinions about sports.

aaronh92@hotmail.com

http://www.centennial-sports.com

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