To say that the 2016-2017 Colorado Avalanche were a bad team is an understatement at best. They were terrible. They won 22 games on the year, and with 25 games left to play this year they have already won more games than they did last season. Credit should be given to Joe Sakic, and the rest of the Colorado front office for the turnaround. Sakic stuck with Jared Bednar as the head coach, and that move is paying off as well.
So what changed? I think the first noticeable change is that the Avalanche got younger, much younger! During the 2016-2017 season their average age was 28 years old, and that average is still misleading as there was not many players who were that young, but a few players who were so young they made the average age lower than how the team looked, and played. This year the average age of the team is 23.8 years old. The youth movement has proven to pay off with players like Samuel Girard who is a 19 year old defenseman, but is playing with the smarts of a veteran being just one example. Girard has shown he is going to be a special player for us, and at 19 we can expect him to be around for a long time. They have another player who isn't even 20 yet in center Tyson Jost who has shown he has special offensive talent, and will grow into a player that will be around Colorado for a long time. Add in players like Mikko Rantanen who is 21, JT Compher who is 22, and Alexander Kerfoot who is 23 and you have a young core of players behind team stars Nathan Mackinnion, who himself is only 22, and Gabriel Landeskog who is 25, and you have a core of young, fast, and hungry players that will be around for a long time.
The next reason this team has turned around is best defined in two words: Nathan Mackinnion. He has taken that next step into not just being a star player, but being one of the top 3 to 5 players in the NHL. Mackinnion has been hurt for a few games, and is still in the top 15 in overall points scored, 15th in goals scored, and tied for 17th in assists. His ranking is misleading as again, he has been injured and has played about 10 less games than the other players on the list. Mackinnion has had an impact in every game he has played in, and it is my opinion that he has turned himself into of the best 3 or 4 offensive players in the NHL when he is healthy.
The success of this team also has to do with team chemistry that last year simply wasn't there. Team chemistry, especially in a game as physical as hockey is one of the most important things when it comes to a teams success, and Joe Sakic made a controversial move this year that went a long way in fixing the chemistry in the locker room. The move Sakic made was getting rid of Matt Duchene. There is no doubt that Duchene is a talented offensive player, but he was toxic in the locker room. He made it no secret he wanted out of Colorado, and I do not think that it is any surprise that once he was gone the team collectively started playing better, and things began to gel. The Avalanche got a ton of assets in return for Duchene that really were not supposed to pay off this year, but Samuel Girard is making the most of his opportunity, and showing that he is a future super star in the NHL. Along with Girard the Avalanche they got forward prospects Vladislav Kamenev, and Shane Bowers, along with goalie Andrew Hammond. They received Ottawa's 2018 first round draft selection, Nashville's 2018 second round selection, and Ottawa's 2019 third round selection. Getting rid of Duchene fixed the team chemistry, and gave us more than enough ammunition to build something special here over the course of the next few years.
If there is anything to be critical of this Av's team about it would be it's physical size, and its toughness. These are hockey players, so saying they are not tough is not what I mean in a traditional sense. What I mean by toughness is they are simply more of a finesse team than they are a physical team, and when the playoffs come the physical play increases and that is where the Av's could struggle. As of right now Colorado only has 1 player in the top 50 in hits delivered, and that is Nikita Zadorov. They do not have anyone to really fill the "enforcer" role, and if you watched them play the Winnipeg Jets it would be impossible to not notice they really got pushed around, and bullied on the ice. With the team being so young there is no doubt that a lot of these guys will grow, and fill out as they get older, but that doesn't make it any easier to watch this year.
After coming off a 22 win season last year I don't think anyone expected the Av's to play as well as they are this year, and they could potentially make a run in the playoffs, but if there is anything to get even more excited about than their success this year it is the future! Last season the support for the Avalanche was on life support, but this season one can't help but smile when they watch this team and think about what the future holds!
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