The Colorado Avalanche may be feeling the sting of their first OTL in the 2026-27 season, but against a top opponent, every little lesson counts. An away-and-home back-to-back against your biggest rival feels crucial. In reality, it's the opening salvo in another year-long battle.
True, it would have been gratifying to see Colorado win both contests decisively. But dueling 3-2 results serve to illustrate what we already know. This rivalry is as even as any in pro sports right now. If the Avalanche want to have the last laugh this season, they must find a way to harness their emotional swings.
In Tuesday's tilt at Dallas, we saw more outward aggression. The game featured two fights and another pair of matching roughing calls. Here at MHS, we've already opined on superstar Nathan MacKinnon's increased willingness to drop the gloves.
Just seven games into the season, MacKinnon has already fought twice. This is from a guy who is usually good for one scrap a year. Giving him the benefit of the doubt, I believe he was out to communicate something specific in both cases.
This Avalanche team is meaner than before
Nathan MacKinnon may have joked about some unkind words being said on opening night. But the whooping he dished-out on Brandt Clarke was a message. If you remember, that fight only came after Clarke landed a cheap shot on Cale Makar. In the heat of the moment, rookie forward T.J. Hughes earned his teammates' respect when he flew in and took a roughing penalty. Still, MacKinnon wanted more that night.
The Tuesday night fight also had some dimension below the surface. Stars forward Roope Hintz previously injured his hamstring in 2025-26. This was after he got tangled up with MacKinnon, so it stands to reason that Hintz was out for revenge. MacKinnon obviously isn't going to back down if challenged.
But the fight that MacKinnon was happy about against the Stars was Fedor Svechkov's throwdown with Radek Faksa. In postgame comments about his own fight, he praised Svechkov for defending Jaden Schwartz.
It might be that MacKinnon downplayed the second scrap because he didn't win it. However, it isn't lost on me that so much of the fisticuffs and physicality involves new Avalanche players. MacKinnon is encouraging guys further down the depth chart to throw hands. I don't expect the reigning points leader to morph into a middleweight champ, but neither has he been subtle about enjoying some edge.
Keep in mind we haven't even seen much of Zachary L'Heureux yet. He is another offseason acquisition brought in by Joe Sakic specifically to mix it up. Being more willing to fight is one thing. Using the heightened violence to collective advantage will take time to fine-tune.
The power play woes persist, but are they the same?
The Avalanche are still a mess on the man advantage. After an exciting 4-for-5 opening night against Los Angeles, the Avs' power play has again sputtered. They have only managed one more power play goal, and that was a 5-on-3 conversion against Dallas on Tuesday.
What's worse than not scoring? Surrendering embarrassing shorthanded goals. Maddeningly, Colorado has already given up three such goals in seven games. That has to change ASAP. One issue on special teams is feeding the other. At least, that felt like the case last night.
Perhaps you could blame overactivity and some free-wheeling attitude for the first two shorties given up against the Kings. The fact that the Avalanche were able to cash in on four chances that night made up for the mental lapses.
Whereas recently, the familiar pattern of hesitancy and not enough shooting, which plagued the PP unit last season, has seemingly returned. How do they fix it?
I think they need to get back to basic stuff. New dad Cale Makar has got to get back to firing from the point with regularity. For years, he had tremendous success doing this. Yet on Tuesday, when he was out of the lineup entirely, the team finally converted again. Makar is too great to be shy in these moments.
Additionally, I believe it's time to move T.J. Hughes off of PP1 for now. This isn't a knock on the rookie. He's been put under tremendous pressure to start his career. At some point, the opportunity becomes counterproductive.
Oftentimes, the setups on the man advantage seem designed to force the puck to Hughes. That's not serving him the longer the poor results persist. In fact, it's putting too much weight on a young player who is working hard. It isn't fair to a rookie to expect his first National Hockey League goal to come under these conditions.
Likewise, it is frustrating to watch the limited SOG Colorado is producing in those situations come down to the most inexperienced stick. The Avalanche seemed to want to manufacture a magic moment for the former Michigan Wolverine. Perhaps it's time to admit that gambit isn't working.
This isn't an argument about sending Hughes down yet. I still maintain that he looks decent at creating movement in the bottom six. But seeing the jump that Gavin Brindley had in his debut last night did give me pause.
Brindley was a hair's breadth away from playing hero on Wednesday. I am still sour about that double-doinker that clanged off both posts.
Salvaging an OTL point was low-key resilient
As I mentioned at the start of this article, Colorado still got the better end of the back-to-back. A single extra point in the standings feels minor in October, but it could be huge in the end. Within the game matchup itself, the Avalanche proved to have some important mettle.
They clearly outplayed Dallas in the first period. I'll grant the refs that Hughes was offside on that early Schwartz goal. But the second disallowed goal felt like referee robbery to me personally. If you have to hit slow-mo on the replay to call something a kicking motion, is it 'demonstrative,' as the rulebook says?
I mean, c'mon pal. You are talking about being on skates, on ice, and you are allowed to move forward. Physics is physics, after all.
What that showed me is that this club absolutely has the stuff to beat their greatest modern rival. Yes, Colorado needs to figure out their special teams problems. But they have plenty of time to work on that. I thought it was a small bit of justice that it was Gabriel Landeskog who finally broke the scoreless tie in the second.
Giving up that horrendous shorthanded goal in the third period wasn't the end of the world. A lesser team might fall to pieces after a back-breaker like that. Colorado didn't. Instead, they battled back and evened the score before the end of regulation.
This back-to-back showdown for national television broadcasts might have ended bitterly, but as an Avalanche fan, it didn't leave me any less bullish on this club's chances to win the Central Division again.
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