Avs games in Vancouver the last couple years have been nothing short of wild rides. Tyson Barrie had a five-point night, Nathan MacKinnon injured his shoulder in a playoff chase, Philipp Grubauer struggled badly in a 7-6 barnburner that was also the first-ever DNVR (then BSN) Avalanche Watch Party, and the one game there this year saw Vancouver come back…...

If there was ever a game to wave away a loss, this was it. This was tailor-made for the Avalanche’s five-game winning streak to come to a halt. Let’s look at a list of things going against them coming into this one. Played grueling game last night in Carolina Nashville hung out at home last night and probably watched the…...

Imagine hearing this last season: The Colorado Avalanche have too much depth. The idea that the Avalanche lacked scoring potential beyond its top line was beaten to death, beaten in the afterlife, and then beaten some more. Colorado was often called a ‘one-line team.’ It seems that Joe Sakic felt personally attacked by this narrative because, since the conclusion of…...

I always laugh when guys like me (media types, I mean) categorize a rash of injuries as a possible “blessing in disguise.” Like a team somehow gets better or has an improved situation because a grip of injuries ripped through their team and forced them to play short-handed. For the second time this season, however, the Avalanche are dealing with…...

The trade deadline always presents an odd exercise in building a team that’s trying to win a championship. It’s almost never core pieces that get moved but complementary ones, players on the periphery. After all, it’s largely the good teams in the league trying to pillage the bad teams for the players that can help them the most. That alone…...

I’m a sucker for love stories. Movies, songs, and apparently hockey ones, too. I’m all about them. In the last two years, the Avalanche has enjoyed watching the Nathan MacKinnon-Mikko Rantanen connection blossom into something special. It’s been the kind of connection that makes you believe something bigger might be in store down the road. This year, the rosy-cheeked Cale…...

“Goaltending is voodoo.” In the controlled chaos that is hockey, there is one guy whose job it is to make sense of it all, sift through the madness and decipher the future before it happens and react accordingly. Every game is different, every period has its own personality, and the puck is shaped in such a way that it bounces…...

We knew when the schedule turned over to 2020 that Colorado was facing one of the league’s softest schedules of strength. In the 12 games since the new year began, the Avs have lost five games, just three in regulation, and continue putting themselves in position to challenge for the Central Division title. After a 6-1 beatdown of the Buffalo…...

With the trade deadline fast approaching, it’s become clear the Colorado Avalanche are among the top contenders to emerge from the west this year and compete for the Stanley Cup. No team is ever built perfectly and the trade deadline is not only the last chance for teams to improve its roster, but it also seems to serve as a…...

Style. Systems. Regular season success versus postseason success. Nothing brings these discussions to the forefront of Avalanche hockey quite like matchups against the St. Louis Blues. After the Avs lost both games in St. Louis earlier this year, making it six losses in a row against the Blues, the writing on the wall appeared clear: the Avs were not built…...

We talked on the podcast this week about how Colorado can turn around this losing skid of theirs. It wasn’t a complicated formula. Don’t lose the special teams battle. Get saves. Win at even strength. We said two of those three would be sufficient to get Colorado over the hump and help them close out an opponent. In a 4-0…...

I don’t even know what to write about this game. I’ve been sitting here for several minutes just kind of lost in thought. It was all just so…familiar. Avs played well? Got an early lead? Check. Avs lost the special teams battle? Check. Avs had a lead going into the third period? Check. Avs blew it thanks to a combination…...

In an Avalanche season highlighted by rookie sensation Cale Makar’s fearless dominance and success from all of Joe Sakic’s offseason additions, it’s easy to lose track of Nathan MacKinnon. Take last week’s 7-3 blowout of the conference-leading St. Louis Blues for example. Sam Girard clearly raised his game in an uncharacteristic four-point explosion. The newly-signed defenseman stole the night’s storyline not because he…...

There’s a scene from “The Office” where main character and cliche-ruiner Michael Scott realizes he has the upper hand on his former employer and he starts a conversation by saying, “Well, well, well. How the turntables…” before trailing off and realizing he’s screwed up the phrase. That’s kind of what I imagined tonight when Nathan MacKinnon and Sam Girard had…...

While the NHL goes to sleep for the Christmas break, halfway around the world a group of the world’s most talented under-20 men’s hockey players are gathered to fight for international bragging rights. The World Junior Championships are set to begin this week in the Czech Republic and the Avs are set to send four players to the competition. While…...

LAS VEGAS – ‘Tis the season of ugly Christmas sweater wearing and as we all know, sometimes you wear the sweat and other times that sweater wears you. Coming into their final game before the Christmas break against the Vegas Golden Knights, the Avs were wearing a scarlet ‘L’ on their chest after taking two home losses that should have been…...

Winning in the NHL is hard. It’s really hard when your best players moonlight as your worst for a night. We saw that play out tonight at Pepsi Center as Colorado snatched defeat from the jaws of victory in a classic come-from-ahead loss to the Chicago Blackhawks. I said on the podcast earlier this week that sweeping a divisional opponent…...

Regular seasons have 82 games in them but there are always a couple that stick out as particularly memorable. With the Avalanche walking into St. Louis and temporary bragging rights about who sits atop the Central Division on the line, tonight was destined to be one of those games. The Blues are the defending Stanley Cup champions and have been…...

I’ll be honest. I don’t even really know where to start on this one. Every game is its own miniature story and tonight the story is really just one about a team that keeps winning. Just when it appeared they were getting close to 100%, Nazem Kadri was listed as out. We don’t really know what the injury is there…...