Comments on: 10 Observations: It’s All Business For the Avalanche These Days — The Kings Had No Chance (+) https://coloradohockeynow.com/2025/03/28/10-observations-its-all-business-for-the-avalanche-these-days-the-kings-had-no-chance/ The home of Aarif Deen and the best coverage of the Colorado Avalanche Sat, 29 Mar 2025 15:30:51 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.8.2 By: David Korman https://coloradohockeynow.com/2025/03/28/10-observations-its-all-business-for-the-avalanche-these-days-the-kings-had-no-chance/#comment-74671 Sat, 29 Mar 2025 15:30:51 +0000 https://coloradohockeynow.com/?p=16314#comment-74671 Aarif, I’m surprised you didn’t enter this game changing sequence: the Avs had a 2-0 lead and the Kings were pressing. There was a scramble in front of the net that left Blackwood down and almost out of his crease. A King found the loose puck to the right of the cage and fired what looked like an open net goal. Only, Toews was stationed at the post and miraculously stopped the puck. The excited King forgot to stop and barreled into Blackwood, nearly ramming the facemask with his skate. He was called for goalie interference. On the ensuing power play, Necas sent his masterful slapper on the ice, 3-0. The Kings never really threatened after that

]]> By: Glendon Gulliver https://coloradohockeynow.com/2025/03/28/10-observations-its-all-business-for-the-avalanche-these-days-the-kings-had-no-chance/#comment-74668 Sat, 29 Mar 2025 14:08:19 +0000 https://coloradohockeynow.com/?p=16314#comment-74668 In reply to Aarif Deen.

I posted this around a week ago. The Avs have the following signed next season:
MacKinnon $12.6M
Landeskog $7.0M
Necas $6.5M
Nichushkin $6.125M
Coyle $5.25M
Lehkonen $4.5M
Colton $4.0M
Wood $2.5M
O’Connor $2.5M
Drury $1.725M
Kelly $825K
Makar $9.0M
Toews $7.25M
Girard $5.0M
Manson $4.5M
Blackwood $5.25M
Wedgewood $1.5M

The Avs have 11 forwards, 4 d-men, 2 goalies, and 1 RFA (Malinski) signed. Their total cap including Landeskog, and without a raise to Malinski, is $86.025M. With the cap next year at $95.5M, that leaves $9.425M to sign another forward and d-man (Lindgren?) and give Malinski a raise. That would be for a 20 man roster. That remaining cap space might only be enough to resign Nelson and give Malinski a raise. The team would still need another d-man. To keep Drouin, and Kiviranta would most likely require trading someone. Of course, Landeskog’s salary is a big unknown.

]]> By: Aarif Deen https://coloradohockeynow.com/2025/03/28/10-observations-its-all-business-for-the-avalanche-these-days-the-kings-had-no-chance/#comment-74665 Sat, 29 Mar 2025 04:13:54 +0000 https://coloradohockeynow.com/?p=16314#comment-74665 In reply to John Mauss.

I like this exercise. I’ll dig into it here soon

]]> By: Joshua Canfield https://coloradohockeynow.com/2025/03/28/10-observations-its-all-business-for-the-avalanche-these-days-the-kings-had-no-chance/#comment-74661 Fri, 28 Mar 2025 20:34:27 +0000 https://coloradohockeynow.com/?p=16314#comment-74661 The first few games after the 4 Nations break, I was more than concerned for this team. Even with the new goalies, they seemed to struggle to stay consistent.

After the deadline, they are a completely different team. After that first week, I noticed the Avs do something they haven’t done consistently since 2022– out shoot their opponents, at times during games by 2x to 3x.

After the last two weeks & last night, as a fan, I’m way more confident in this group now.

Things are clicking finally. Goaltending is there when they need it. Bednar can role all four lines. My only concern is defensive depth. If they didn’t add Lindgren at the deadline, they’d be in trouble.

]]> By: Rick Bennett https://coloradohockeynow.com/2025/03/28/10-observations-its-all-business-for-the-avalanche-these-days-the-kings-had-no-chance/#comment-74659 Fri, 28 Mar 2025 20:12:49 +0000 https://coloradohockeynow.com/?p=16314#comment-74659 Great 10 Observations, Aarif.Reading #2 gave me chills. We sit on that end up top and the play was coming right at us. Watching him dance along the blue line I started yelling “c’mon Cale” (which I tend to do whenever he has a scoring chance, probably annoying the hell out of the very nice people who sit in front of us) as soon as he turned the corner. My jaw dropped and the crowd around me let out an audible gasp when he dropped that puck off perfectly at full speed. What a magical hockey player.

Necas looked like a man possessed last night on both offense and defense and Val was visibly pissed after not scoring with 30 seconds left in a 4-0 game. This is starting to feel a lot like ’96, ’01 and ’22.

]]> By: John Mauss https://coloradohockeynow.com/2025/03/28/10-observations-its-all-business-for-the-avalanche-these-days-the-kings-had-no-chance/#comment-74658 Fri, 28 Mar 2025 20:11:32 +0000 https://coloradohockeynow.com/?p=16314#comment-74658 Aarif, I would love to see an analysis of whether it is possible to resign the entire team as it stands now. I think the GM should start with Nelson and Druin. Kivi will probably be tough to resign after the year he has had. I know Landy is a wild card here, but how does it all look? This is unquestionablt the best lineup since the Cup year. What are the chances of keeping it?

]]> By: Rick Bennett https://coloradohockeynow.com/2025/03/28/10-observations-its-all-business-for-the-avalanche-these-days-the-kings-had-no-chance/#comment-74657 Fri, 28 Mar 2025 20:05:08 +0000 https://coloradohockeynow.com/?p=16314#comment-74657 In reply to ricoflashback.

I agree with you on the rest but Bednar made a really good point the other night. Maybe they can’t get past Dallas to get home ice for the first round but they still have the chance to keep ahead of some other teams they could meet in later rounds. I don’t think he’s going to kill them trying to maximize their record (Coyle can tell him about the pitfalls of doing that) but if he can stay ahead of EDM, LA and even VGK not to mention Tampa, Florida and Carolina he’s going to try to do it.

]]> By: ricoflashback https://coloradohockeynow.com/2025/03/28/10-observations-its-all-business-for-the-avalanche-these-days-the-kings-had-no-chance/#comment-74651 Fri, 28 Mar 2025 15:47:10 +0000 https://coloradohockeynow.com/?p=16314#comment-74651 Necas is becoming more and more comfortable in an Avalanche uniform. And on the 2nd line, that’s just a one-two punch that is hard to beat. When you add Martin’s puck carrying skills and speed to the power play with Mac & Makar plus Nuke – – you have a group that can maintain puck possession for a long time. I enjoy watching other teams getting tired and chasing the Avs around as the puck whizzes along like ball in a pinball machine.

This is the deepest team since the Cup years and the goaltending is stronger with the Wood Brothers in goal. It looks like Dallas is playing too well for the Avs to catch them so I hope that Bednar starts to rest some key players on a rotating basis before the playoffs start.

]]> By: Jon https://coloradohockeynow.com/2025/03/28/10-observations-its-all-business-for-the-avalanche-these-days-the-kings-had-no-chance/#comment-74647 Fri, 28 Mar 2025 15:40:59 +0000 https://coloradohockeynow.com/?p=16314#comment-74647 Totally agree that Lindgren is the underrated addition. I heard about his reputation but admittedly I was uncertain given his size. He’s rock solid defensively, but I was completely sold when he rubbed out Jamie Benn, a much bigger player, on an attempted wrap around. The saying that it’s not the size of the dog in the fight but the size of the fight in the dog applies to this guy

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