A Look at the Colorado Avalanche as the Olympic Break Progresses

It's the middle of February, and I still can't believe that the Colorado Avalanche are on top of the entire National Hockey League!

Our final two games before the Olympic Break were home games against the Detroit Red Wings (Feb. 2) and San Jose Sharks (Feb. 4). Regarding the former, we were coming off shutting them out in Motor City on Royal Rumble Saturday. So what happened in the rematch? Oh, nothing. They just shut us out, that's all. Wings struck early, and I mean early, in the first period, and that actually held up. They added an empty netter and that was it. Avs were blanked for the first time all season, and we lost in regulation for the ninth time all season.

Regarding the meeting with the Sharks, that ended much better for us. Scoreless after 20, but we put in a pair in the second. Well, I should say Artturi Lehkonen put in a pair in the second. That was the score after 40 minutes, but in the third, Timothy Liljegren (yet another player the Maple Leafs should have kept) put SJ on the board, and just minutes later, Philipp Kurashev tied it up. We would get the lead back, as Josh Manson made it 3-2, and Brock Nelson sealed it with an empty net goal. A 4-2 victory over the the San Jose Sharks.

So with that, let's talk about how the Avs are doing as the NHL is currently in the Olympic Break:

1st to a Winning Record

The victory over the Sharks improved the Avs' record to 37-9-9, equalling 83 points in the standings. With that number, the Avs became the first team this season to clinch a winning record (82 points is an even .500 record in the NHL), doing so with two months left in the season! Our record is #1 in the NHL; we've had the league's best record pretty much all season. It's giving me 2000-01 vibes, as well as some 2021-22 vibes as well. We are on pace to win 56 games, and that's actually a downward pace--at one point, we were on pace to break the 2022-23 Bruins' record. Honestly, thank God we're not on that pace anymore.

The Avs are five points ahead of the closest teams to them, and it is plural. The Wild, Lightning, and Hurricanes have 78 points each, though it would be the Lightning in the overall #2 spot due to having played the fewest games among the teams. Good God, we really are getting the 2022 rematch, aren't we?

Put Respect on His Name, and Put His Name on the Trophy

Nathan Raymond MacKinnon. Need I say more? I don't, but I will. First to 40 goals already. 93 points this season. He's leading the league in goals by quite a bit, but he's not leading in points--he's three points behind this guy named Connor McDavid. MacKinnon won a Cup before having a 100-point season. Now, not only is he on the verge of his fourth straight season surpassing the century mark, he could finish as the points leader and win the Ross Trophy--which had barely eluded him for the last two seasons.

While the Ross Trophy may be up for grabs, the Hart (NHL MVP) isn't. That's Mack's. It better be Mack's. I've seen too many seasons end with Mack being denied a Hart that he deserved. Why the hell do you think that I was in tears when he finally won the Hart two seasons ago? The way I see it: MacKinnon's winning five trophies this year: the Hart, the Ross, the Richard (Goals leader), the Cup, and the Conn Smythe.

All Hail... Well, You Know

Without question, Cale Makar has quickly become MacKinnon's second-in-command, even when we had Rantanen. There's a reason why I never get accused of being biased when I say that Makar's the best defenseman in the league. It's because, to borrow from Becky Lynch, it's not just me saying it. Others are saying it. ESPN's saying it. TNT's saying it. Wayne Gretzky compared Makar to Paul Coffey, one of the greatest d-men in hockey history, and a teammate of The Great One's.

Makar's 57 points (15 G/42 A) tie him for fourth among defenseman with another strong player, Quinn Hughes. They're division rivals now, my goodness (thanks, Vancouver--SMH). His 15 goals tie him for fifth among defensemen with Evan Bouchard, who leads all defensemen in points this season. I'll be honest, I don't like Makar's Norris chances this year, the pool is too deep. My boy may have to finish ahead of Quinn Hughes just to be a finalist, because I'm pretty certain that Bouchard and Zach Werenski are in deep consideration.

A Terrific Tandem

Makar's 57 points are third on the team; in second place is Martin Necas, who is in his first full season with the Avs. Necas has 62 points (22 G/40 A) entering the Olympic Break, and while he is second on the team in points, it's Brock Nelson who is second on the team in goals with 29, and he's been scoring them in bunches lately. The two goals that Artturi Lehkonen scored against SJ put him at 19 overall, and regarding our blueliners, the closest point total to Makar's is 26, and in a huge shocker, it's Brent Burns with that total.

As for our goaltending, it's been absolutely fantastic this season! Scott Wedgewood had to pick up the load with Mackenzie Blackwood out for the first bit of the year, but Wedge held the fort down, and Blackie got the job done when he returned. You know how good it is? Both goalies are in the top five in Goals Against Average (Blackwood at 2.25, Wedgewood at 2.30).

Make Us Proud

In closing, I want to gush over the Avalanche representation in Milan for this year's Winter Olympics. Eight players. Eight! And representing five countries at that! Our Captain, Gabriel Landeskog, representing Sweden. Artturi Lehkonen and Joel Kiviranta are representing Finland, while Martin Necas plays for Czechia. Nathan MacKinnon, Devon Toews, and Cale Makar are representing Canada, and Brock Nelson is representing the US--the first Avs player to represent the US in the Winter Games since Paul Stastny in 2014. So it's eight players, though, to me, it's nine. One of Canada's goalies this year is Darcy Kuemper, and while he is currently with the Los Angeles Kings, he'll always be one of us; he was in net for us during our 2022 Stanley Cup.

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The Avalanche's regular season will resume on February 25 against the Utah Mammoth, the very team we will play in next year's Winter Classic. We have 27 games left in the regular season. There's talk of us winning the Presidents' Trophy this year. I know it's cursed, but we are one of the few teams who know how to put that Trophy to proper use. We will definitely see how the rest of our year goes, and hopefully, it will end with us winning Cup #4.