An Avalanche of Inevitability – Colorado’s moves have them burying the competition

“Even the largest avalanche is triggered by small things.”
-Vernor Vinge

A scant 56 days ago, the Colorado Avalanche were the ones looking as if they the ones buried. Buried in the middle of their division and conference, and mired in a slump, having lost four of their last five, and six of their last nine. The team had just lost a tough game in Boston, and was headed into New York for the second night of a roadie back-to-back. Things were looking bleak with the trade deadline looming.

But even the largest avalanche is triggered by small things.

The second night of that back-to-back ended up a gutty 5-4 win against the Rangers. With less than :30 seconds in the game, Cale Makar stepped out of the penalty box and provided the assist to Artturi Lehkonen with the Avs taking the lead with :15 seconds left in the game. Some of the early moves the Avs had made were starting to pay off, and there were signs of small but great things.

20 games later, Colorado has been an Avalanche of their own, sporting a 14-5-1 record in that time, and having blown through the league with their bold moves to shore up the center of the roster. In those 14 wins, the Avs have averaged a scorching margin of victory of 2.71 points, rarely needing late game heroics like the ones in New York that started this icy landslide.

In addition to having stars such as points leader and reigning MVP Nathan MacKinnon and 2022 Norris Trophy winner Makar, they also have a phalanx of difference makers like Lehkonen, who is currently third in plus/minus this year, or Martin Necas and Brock Nelson, trade and trade deadline additions who have contributed mightily and immediately. Even their wholesale goalie reshuffling has worked out like a dream, with both Mackenzie Blackwood and Scott Wedgewood both turning out gem over gem since their arrival.

Different sport, different league, but the Colorado Avalanche have basically been the antithesis of the Dallas Mavericks since the NBA trade deadline. Where every move and machination the Mavs have made has blown up in their faces Wile E. Coyote style, it seems like the Avs moves were damned near prescient, with every piece fitting into place as if it were a puzzle just waiting to be completed. An avalanche of small things piecing themselves into something of an inevitability.

The oddsmakers outside of Colorado have taken notice as well, with the Avalanche slotted somewhere amongst the top three favorites to win the Stanley Cup at nearly every sportsbook, and the club currently the darlings of the dark horse set.

If that weren’t enough small and felicitous flakes falling in the direction of the Avalanche, there have even been rumors and rumblings of Captain Gabriel Landeskog possibly making his long-awaited return, with a smooth-looking skating practice making the rounds right as the other ducks just keep falling in a row. If Landy could provide this team with one more shot in the arm – both physically and spiritually – there’s no telling how this season might just line itself up. Gabe rising from the dead would be a hell of an inspiration going into what looks like a dogfight of a playoff run.

Who’s to say where this all ends up in the next 90-100 days, and if the Avs will still be skating at the end. There are certainly a number of things that can fall into the wrong places by the time that all comes. But for nearly two months now, the small things have all been falling into the right places, and Colorado hockey is looking like the team of fortune in 2025. It’s not too far out now to tell if the rest of the league is only standing in the way of an Avalanche that is simply inevitable.