The regular season is over and the road to the Stanley Cup is set for the Colorado Avalanche. They open up in Round 1 as the number one seed out west, taking on a Nashville Predators team that sputtered a bit coming into the postseason as they blew a four-goal lead against the Arizona Coyotes in the final game of…...

It’s like the first day of school. Actually no… it’s like Christmas morning. You’ve talked about it, looked forward to it, imagined what it would be like, ad now it’s here. The NHL Playoffs. We’ve talked so much about the lead up to the end of the regular season, and how teams were mailing it in just trying to get…...

Starting this last summer, Oskar Olausson’s life has been a whirlwind of one event after the other. In July Olausson, joined by a draft class made up of Owen Power, Matty Beniers, and Luke Hughes, was selected 28th overall and is one of three Swedish first-round draft picks throughout Avalanche history. One is Jonas Johansson, and the other? Gabriel Landeskog.…...

Nicolas Aube-Kubel – C+ Had some good looks in the game but couldn’t finish. Sometimes takes a little too long to make his move or a decision but is usually pretty smart about holding onto the puck. Andre Burakovsky – D Meaningless game but zero shot attempts at even strength. Can he find another gear in the playoffs? Hope so.…...

Well, folks, we made it. The regular season is officially behind us, and what a regular season it was for the Colorado Avalanche. Now, we are staring down the emotional rollercoaster that is the Stanley Cup Playoffs.  For the first time since the 2018-2019 season, the Colorado Avalanche completed an 82-game schedule, and boy oh boy did it feel like…...

As the Avs skaters start to ramp up towards the playoffs Darcy Kuemper has been battling a bit. With a loss placed squarely on his shoulders is it something to be concerned about or can it be brushed off? https://youtu.be/zE9FE1a8HcM

“Remember, Red, hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies.” – Andy Dufresne, The Shawshank Redemption Hope is the name of at least three cities in the United States. Hope is the name of a cousin of mine. Hope is a dessert at this cool little place I went to in Arkansas.…...

Nicolas Aube-Kubel – C+ Picks up a nice assist whacking away at the puck on the weird O’Connor goal. His best moment came in the third period with an epic shift, which ended with him taking a Preds player off the puck and hitting Compher for a one-timer. Andre Burakovsky – D Great play on the Lehkonen goal, showed some…...

With news of Juuse Saros’ injury ahead of tonight’s game, there was real concern for a Nashville team that otherwise stacks up well against this Colorado Avalanche team. The match-ups for these two teams throughout this season have been anything but bland. In December, an already COVID-interrupted season was further disrupted by an uptick in cases throughout the league. Justin…...

The story of Valeri Nichushkin’s odyssey through the NHL is pretty well-worn territory by this point. When he landed in Colorado late in the offseason after being bought out by Dallas, he was coming off a season where he scored zero goals and just 10 assists in 57 games. It wasn’t even like the Stars weren’t playing him. 57 games…...

With the return of Devon Toews, it was back to business in dominating fashion for the Avs against the St. Louis Blues. With just two regular-season games left the only thing left to prove lies in the playoffs. https://youtu.be/9cTIskcplVg

Nicolas Aube-Kubel – C Seeing him on the second line was interesting, but probably a sign, more than anything, that he’s a floater and come postseason, isn’t likely to be in the top 12 forward crew. Andre Burakovsky – D- It’s funny the Avs won tonight because their high end skill guys up front were not at their best. Burakovsky…...

The Colorado Avalanche normally start their morning skate practice at 10:30 AM on game days. This morning though, as the media filed into the main seating bowl at Ball Arena, the team was noticeably absent from the ice until almost 10:45.  Once media availability rolled around, head coach Jared Bednar reviled that the team was late getting on the ice…...

Less than a week to go in the NHL season, and that just means the storylines around the league are getting more and more interesting. A wild game on Sunday night, another great player calls it a career, and the Avs stumble down the stretch causing some to be concerned. Ryan Getzlaf hangs ‘em up Ryan Getzlaf officially called it…...

Nicolas Aube-Kubel – C Ugly turnovers led to him taking a penalty at the end of the first but liked him other than that. Big hit in the second period pissed the Jets off so much that they spent the rest of that period trying to kill him. Andre Burakovsky – D He was pretty invisible at even strength, but…...

Going into the third period with the score still sitting at 0-0, the Colorado Avalanche had to feel pretty good about their chances to end their three-game losing skid and beat the Winnipeg Jets to salvage something from what had been a nightmare of a road trip to that point. The Avs had been outplayed through two periods but had…...

Nicolas Aube-Kubel – C+ Aube-Kubel had some legs, unlike a lot of the team, who I thought looked sluggish. Had some nice chip and chase moments and was willing to hold onto the puck a little bit on the third line. Felt more dangerous than his two linemates. Andre Burakovsky – C- Burky picks up points in games I really…...

Depth is really important in the NHL, but I would venture a guess that on at least seven out of every 10 games that an NHL team plays, the results will follow how a team’s best players do. In tonight’s 6-3 loss to the Edmonton Oilers, we saw Colorado’s best players fail to really show up and impact the game…...

Last you heard from this column we were busy going 0-4 on our straight wagers and 1-6 overall. So we took the week off to regroup, and we are going to keep it simple this week to provide some much-needed post-Easter loot. Minnesota -1.5 (-110) vs. Seattle The Kraken snuck up on the Avs the other night. Terrible teams aren’t…...