Colorado Avalanche Will Need Help Making Playoffs

The Colorado Avalanche lost a tough game on Saturday afternoon against the Minnesota Wild, which may have essentially dashed their playoff hopes.

The Colorado Avalanche are now five points out of a playoff spot with one game in hand on the Wild, and seven left to play on the season.

It’s going to be tough making the playoffs this year, but their hopes are not completely gone, especially if they can win a good amount of games down the stretch. However, they’ll still need some help from the Minnesota Wild to get there.

Here’s a look at the remaining games for each team.

Minnesota Wild Schedule Down the Stretch

The Minnesota Wild will play six more games, and the Colorado Avalanche will need the Wild to lose three of them at least.

The Wild will play the Blackhawks, Senators, Red Wings, Jets, Sharks, and Flames in their final six games; three of those teams are playoff bound, while the other three have a combined 11 wins in the past 10 games.

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While the Hawks, Sharks and Red Wings will present tough opponents, the other three are likely to be easier opponents surely, but teams that are playing loose can be difficult to play against.

Unfortunately, the wild only have to win 3 more games to get to 91 points, while the avalanche would need a 5-0-1 record to get to 91 points.

If the Wild win out, they will have 97 points on the season, and the Colorado Avalanche would only have 94 points if they won out, which is not very likely with their remaining schedule.

Colorado Avalanche Schedule Down the Stretch

The Colorado Avalanche will obviously play seven more games over the rest of the season, and they will need to win five of them at least, and probably lose the other two in extra time, or they need to win out.

However, with so many games lost late in the third period, they really only have themselves to blame for their current spot in the standings.

It’s not going to get any easier either because their remaining schedule will put them through the ringer in order to make the playoffs.

The Colorado Avalanche will play the Predators, Blues, Capitals, Blues, Predators, Stars and Ducks in their final seven games.

All seven teams are currently strongly solidified in a playoff spot, so these next seven games are going to be very difficult for the Colorado Avalanche.

Nonetheless, they have proven to be resilient against some of the top teams in the Western Conference this season, and perhaps they can pull together, and enact the miraculous.

Conclusion

However, Colorado Avalanche fans could be looking at another long summer because they have such a difficult schedule down the stretch.

Hopefully they’ll see the return of Nathan MacKinnon and Matt Duchene soon because they’ll find it difficult to win many more games without their top two centers.

Regardless, they’ll need a lot of help if they’re going to make the playoffs, and that’s all Colorado Avalanche fans can hope for at this point.

Next: Colorado Avalanche: Fragility Comes to the Surface

Tonight, they play the Nashville Predators at 6 p.m. MST. All of their games from here on out are pivotal contests, until they get mathematically eliminated from playoff contention.

So, tune in to Altitude for tonight’s contest, when the Colorado Avalanche are thankfully back on the road.

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