The Colorado Avalanche’s season has got off to a sputtering start. At times, we’ve seen signs of a good team, a playoff team. Mostly, though, the Avs continue to look like they’re just not ready for the big moment.
It’s easy to say that the Avs are close, that they’re talented, but until they prove they’re ready to compete on a consistent, night-to-night basis, envisioning a scenario where Colorado is competing well into the playoffs just doesn’t seem likely.
So with that said, here are three things Colorado absolutely has to improve on if they are going to remain in the playoff conversation:
3. Goaltending
There’s no doubt that the Avs are constantly putting their goaltender, whoever it may be, behind the eight ball each night, but the Avs have also shown that when they’ve had a goalie playing at an elite level, it doesn’t matter.
Whether it was Craig Anderson in 2010 or Semyon Varlamov in 2014, Colorado has proven they can be successful despite a sub-par support. Now, the Avs can’t expect their goaltender to play at the level Varly played at two years ago, but at the same time, they can’t have a goalie giving up over five goals a game, either.
Reto Berra has played great through his first two starts, and we’ll see if Patrick Roy makes a more permanent switch in the coming weeks, but the bottom line is that the Avs are going to need outstanding play from between the pipes if they plan on making it back to the playoffs.
2. Matt Duchene needs to wake up
“Paging Matt Duchene. Matt Duchene? Hello?”
Through five games, the Avs’ supposed star center, Matt Duchene, has looked anything but star-like. So far, the best thing you can say about Duchene is that he finally got his first point of the season on Sunday with a power play goal against the Kings, but that doesn’t change the fact that Colorado needs A LOT more out of Duchene.
Other big-name guys like Gabriel Landeskog and Nathan MacKinnon are doing their part, but with a -5 plus/minus, Duchene has been one of the least effective players on the Avs’ roster thus far.
If that doesn’t change, don’t expect anything more than average from the Avalanche this season.
1. Shots on goal
As I said earlier, the Avs aren’t exactly making their goaltender’s life easy, allowing 32.6 shots on goals a game, good for seventh most in the league. And at this point, that’s pretty much par for the course.
Last season the Avs allowed 33.2 shots a game (fifth most in the NHL), and since the start of the 2009 season, Colorado has only given up less than 31 shots a game once.
What’s more alarming, though, especially on a team that is marketed as having a boatload of young offensive talent, is that the Avs haven’t been able to supplement their lack of defense with a potent offensive attack over the last two years.
The Avalanche currently sit at 29th in the NHL with only 24.2 shots on goal a game, which is already worse than the 27.9 shots on goal they got up last season (27th in the NHL). Though the Avs were able to turn minimal shot attempts into goals in 2014, that hasn’t been the case these last two years.
Colorado needs to start controlling the puck better, limiting possessions for the opposing team. This is a team-wide issue, and it’s going to need a team-wide solution.