Colorado Avalanche: Checking in at the Quarter-Season Mark

At the quarter-season mark, the Colorado Avalanche are in good shape. They’re enjoying a winning record.

Can you believe the Colorado Avalanche have already played about a quarter of their games? Man, it seems like the offseason goes so slowly, and the season itself flies by.

The Avalanche have played 20 games as of the Anaheim Ducks match. As we know, that overtime victory constituted win number 1,000 since the team moved from Quebec.

Going into tomorrow’s game against the LA Kings, the Avalanche have a 10-6-4 record — a winning record. They’ve amassed 24 points, which is good for number four in the Central Division and the first wild card spot, for what that’s worth at this point in the season.

I’d just like to note that, at this time last season, Colorado had a 10-8-1 record for 21 points. That team had a +1 goal differential. This inception has a +12.

I love that the Avs are currently improving over last year, which was already a successful season. Well, that makes sense. The general makeup of the team is mostly the same. Last year, the Avalanche were one of the youngest teams in the NHL. This year, the kids have grown up a little.

At this quarter-season mark, with 20 games under their belt, the Colorado Avalanche are doing quite well. Let’s look into their play a little more in-depth.

Goal Tending

The Colorado Avalanche are supposed to have two number-one goalies. I’m not saying that’s not the situation. And I already made my case for starting Philipp Grubauer more often if the goal of this season is to further the youth movement.

Semyon Varlamov has the better statistics. In his 13 starts, he’s recorded a 2.32 goals against average to Grubauer’s 3.36 and a .926 save percentage to .896. That said, Philipp’s record is marginally better — 4-1-2 to 6-5-2.

I guess when you look at it that way, you do have two number-one goalies in that each man has his strengths and weaknesses. This is an interesting year for goal tending because the 30-year-old Varlamov is in the final year of his contract, while the 26-year-old Grubauer is in the first of a three-year deal.

In other words, you should be looking at a goalie who’s ending his Avs career as a new one is beginning his. But I don’t know that it’s that simple.

Right now, Colorado has two goalies properly in the pipeline — Spencer Martin and Pavel Francouz. Right now, Francouz in the better of the two. He has a 6-4-1 record with a GAA of 2.92 and a save percentage of .912. Martin is 0-3-2 with a GAA of 4.29 and a save percentage of .858.

Francouz is 28, though — two years older than Grubauer. Is he the future of Avs backup goal tending? Hard to say yes — he’s not that dominant at the lower level.

Somehow I feel the Avalanche will have to either sign a true NHLer to back up Grubauer or sign Varlamov to an interim deal, which is kind of the same thing.

Team Leaders

More from Mile High Sticking

• Could Colorado Avalanche move on from Pavel Francouz next offseason?
• 4 goalies to replace Pavel Francouz if he has to miss time
• Colorado Avalanche make sneaky signing with Tatar
• Colorado Avalanche captain Gabriel Landeskog could return in 2023-24 playoffs
• Colorado Avalanche rookie face-off tournament roster

We’re not just talking about team leaders at this point. We’re talking about NHL leaders. Indeed, we’re talking about franchise leaders, which is insane.

The top line of Nathan MacKinnon, Mikko Rantanen, and Gabriel Landeskog is on fire.

Rantanen leads the team with 32 points (8 goals, 24 assists). Scratch that — he leads the entire NHL with 32 points. MacKinnon is right behind him on the team — and the entire NHL — with 29 points (13 goals, 16 assists).

What’s more, Rantanen is the first player in the entire NHL to reach 30 points, which he did against the Ducks with his three-point night. He’s only the third Avs player to accomplish that feat, with Peter Forsberg having done so in 1995-96, and Joe Sakic having done so in 1996-97.

Rantanen leads the entire NHL in assists with that 24, and Landeskog tops the entire NHL in plus-minus with +13. (No, I’m not getting tired of emphasizing the entire NHL thing — it’s been a long time.) MacKinnon and Landeskog both have 13 goals, which ties them for third place in the entire NHL.

The top line — which I like to call the Who’s Your Daddy Line — also leads the entire NHL in points with 83, thanks partially to their eight-point night against the Ducks. No, really, I’m getting a little giddy typing all this.

MacKinnon is tied for first place for even-strength goals (11), while Landeskog is in second place for game-winning goals with four. Ahem, in the entire NHL.

Landeskog set a new Avalanche record for the month of October with his 10 goals. He also was the first franchise player to reach double-digits in October since Owen Nolan did so for the Nordiques in 1991. The last player to score 10+ goals in a month was Matt Duchene, who had that historic November during the 2015-16 season (11 goals).

And little old Tyson Barrie? Well, he’s fourth on the team with 17 points (1 goal, 16 assists). With his assist on Sunday evening, he tied Adam Foote for second place all-time among Avalanche defensemen with 203. His sights are now set on the assists leader, John-Michael Liles, with 207. He could well overtake Liles for points this season, having 265 to Liles 275.

Analysis

That last slide was an amazing one to type. Blogging didn’t exist in the Golden Era of the Colorado Avalanche. And even if it had, we didn’t appreciate what we had in those Avs greats. We didn’t know anything else in hockey besides their dominance.

Now we know better. Now we know our Avalanche can skate to a dismal 48-point season. Avs hockey can hurt.

That’s why it feels so euphoric to be here in the now. We’re not Stanley Cup contenders yet. However, I feel like the Avalanche have a solid foundation for the future.

Besides the above observations, I’d like to add a few things about Avalanche hockey that should make us all feel good:

• Alexander Kerfoot seems to be the real deal as a second liner. He’s number 14 on the team again with 14 points (4 goals, 10 assists) and leads the team in faceoffs with 61.42% wins.
• Samuel Girard unofficially leads the NHL in spin-o-ramas. No, seriously, he continues to amaze every night. He’s at a 3.2 CorsiFor relative.
• You know who else has great fancy stats? Tyson Jost. He’s second on the team with 51.4 CorsiFor% and third with 4.3 CorsiFor relative. Eye test wise, he seems to be finding his NHL legs this season — and that translates into a 200-foot game complete with both forechecking and backchecking.
• Due to a head injury, J.T. Compher has been limited to just five games this season. However, he was showing real promise in all areas of his game including faceoff percentage (54.9%) and CorsiFor relative (1.9). He recorded one goal and three assists in those five games. Hopefully, he stays on that track when he returns.

In addition to those tangibles, we have the continuously improving play of Vladislav Kamenev. What’s more, there’s hope that Conor Timmins’ concussion symptoms will clear up, and he’ll be able to take his rightful place with the team. And, you know, Cale Makar.

In other words, the future looks bright for the Colorado Avalanche.

If the Avalanche don’t make the playoffs this season, it won’t be because they don’t deserve it or that they’re not moving in the right direction. It will be because they play in the ridiculous Central Division. They’ll have a record that would put them into the playoffs in a different division.

I do hope the Avs make the playoffs, though. Not only are playoffs fun, but they’re useful for the youngsters who need development in that playoff intensity. Who knows — they might even have a team to make the second round this season.