The Colorado Avalanche’s season came to a shocking end.
They were swept aside by the Vegas Golden Knights in the Western Conference Finals, after dropping Game 4 in Vegas 2-1.
In a year in which the Avalanche put together a 55-win, 121-point season, they will not be playing for the Stanley Cup. What makes it even more shocking is how everything came crashing down. They were the favorites going in with home ice advantage.
The Avs entered the series with confidence and swagger. In the span of less than a week, that all disappeared. Now, the Avalanche are left with more questions than answers. The biggest one will be what truly went wrong?
Avalanche Beaten At Their Own Game
The answer to that is simpler than many might think. The Golden Knights were the only team that could match everything the Avalanche threw at them. They had the speed, skill, depth, goaltending and coaching to go toe-to-toe with Colorado.
While injuries to key players such as Cale Makar, Nathan MacKinnon and Martin Nečas were a factor, they weren’t the deciding factor. The Avalanche had their chances. They were up late in Game 2 only to lose 3-1 in regulation.
They had a commanding 3-0 lead after the first period of Game 3, only to give up five unanswered goals. Game 4 looked more like the Avalanche had nothing left in the tank. They went down 2-0 in the third, and despite getting one past goaltender Carter Hart late, it wasn’t enough.
Top Guys Didn’t Step Up
Colorado finished with just seven goals in the four games. A big reason the scoring went away was the defense by Vegas and the lack of production from the Avalanche’s top talent. MacKinnon, Makar, Nečas, and Gabriel Landeskog combined for three goals and seven points.
Landeskog scored all three of those combined goals. MacKinnon was the biggest surprise as he produced zero goals and just two points all series. While this is a team game, the top guys need to be the top guys, and they simply weren’t.
The depth as well for Colorado struggled to match what Vegas threw at them, and they became a non-factor. The goaltending of both Scott Wedgewood and Mackenzie Blackwood did what they could, but could not compare to the performances of Vegas’ Hart.
Major Questions Looming
As their season came to a bitter end in a sweep, the Avalanche will have some soul-searching to do this offseason. They also have to answer some tough questions. Do they keep head coach Jared Bednar or look for a different voice?
How do they improve the depth that was so valuable to them until this series? Does the goaltending need a change despite the tremendous seasons from “the lumberyard” duo? These are questions that many Avalanche fans and media did not think would need to be asked, given where the team was expected to be.
GM Joe Sakic has some major evaluations to do this offseason. He has to find a way to get his team back to Stanley Cup glory. For now, though, the bitter taste of being swept aside in the Conference Finals will linger all summer long.
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