The Winnipeg Jets set an NHL record for the best start in league history and continue to sit at or near the very top of the standings.
The Colorado Avalanche lost its first four games and was one game above .500 on Dec. 5.
A Central Division title and potentially the No. 1 seed in the Western Conference just isn’t a possibility anymore of the Avs, right? The Jets are too far down the road, no?
“We can track any team down, if we win enough games and they lose enough,” Avs defenseman Devon Toews said. “We dug ourselves a hole at the start of the year, and we’re starting to trend the right way. We don’t care where we finish, as long as our game is trending the right direction after Game 82.”
In a span of three weeks, the Avs have gone from “they’re still going to make the playoffs, right?” to suddenly being one of the hottest teams in the NHL. Thinking of Colorado as a Stanley Cup contender is back, and there’s still half a season left to surge up the standings.
Winnipeg began the last of 2024 with an 11-point lead. Making up 11 points in 45 games would be a statistical rarity, but the Avs won Tuesday night and get two more shots at the Jets by Jan. 22.
Win those two, and needing five more points in the other 42 games feels a lot more manageable.
“Our goal is finish as high as we possibly can. It always is,” Avs coach Jared Bednar said. “It’s not really about the standings for me. It’s about, well, No. 1 you have to get in. It’s more about, you know if you’re getting the results with as deep as the West is and how good everyone is, you’re doing something right.
“It’s more about the way we’re playing in order to have success long term and at the right time of year.”
The Avs will always focus more on the process than peering at the standings during the regular season. Colorado has won nine of its past 11 games. Swapping in two new goaltenders has completely changed the production at that position.
After the Avs lost at Carolina on Dec. 5, they were tied for last in the league at 3.78 goals allowed per game. They’re first since then, at 1.91 per contest.
The penalty kill is much improved, in large part because of the improved goaltending. The power play went through a rough stretch but has scored four times during this five-game winning streak.
“It’s everything. We’re committed to the defensive side,” Toews said. “We’re seeing that offense hasn’t been lacking from it. We’re able to create offense with playing good defense instead of stretching to create in a way that hurts us defensively.
“Sometimes it takes a little bit for guys to realize that and understand it and see it,” Toews said. “It takes some of those games for guys to really dig in and buy into it. Now we’re starting to do it every night.”
The Avs still haven’t been a consistently strong team at even strength. All of the injuries to key players have likely played a role in that. A lack of confidence in the goaltending earlier in the season may have played into it as well.
Colorado did get its closest to being healthy Tuesday when Jonathan Drouin returned, but Valeri Nichushkin also missed the final 24-plus minutes with a lower-body injury, so that good fortune may have been tempoarary.
Even the performance against the Jets, considering Winnipeg was on a back-to-back and didn’t have its best player, goaltender Connor Hellebuyck, didn’t suggest that everything is fixed. But the Avs, even with a key guy here or there missing, can match firepower with any team in the NHL.
They’ve been hoping for competent goaltending after the rough start. What if they continue to get excellent, or even just above-average work from Mackenzie Blackwood and Scott Wedgewood and a little better work at suppressing scoring chances?
That’s going to make the Avs a very dangerous team in the second half of the season, whether or not they can chase down the Jets at the top of the Central Division or not.
“I think we’re getting there. I think we’ve made huge strides as a team, even with all the guys out,” Bednar said. “We still haven’t seen our full team yet. Hopefully we continue to improve, but I like our team’s mindset right now, our attitude, work ethic, all that. Hopefully we can keep it going. We’re getting closer with our consistency of putting in the full 60, which I like.”
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