Colorado Avalanche general manager Chris MacFarland announced the organization is moving away from assistant coach Ray Bennett during last week’s post-season media conference. This move came just days after Colorado's devastating elimination to the Dallas Stars in an epic Game 7 battle.
Prior to the announcement, fans had taken to social media to call for staff accountability in the early playoff exit, particularly in the form of parting ways with head coach Jared Bednar or MacFarland himself. It seems Bennett will be the scapegoat for the unsatisfying end to this Avalanche season after the team's postseason power play failed to produce under his guidance.
Across seven games, the Avalanche had 19 power play opportunities but only managed to capitalize a meager three times on those man advantages, with all three goals coming courtesy of Nathan MacKinnon. Colorado went into the offseason with a disappointing power play percentage of just 15.8% in the postseason, a vast difference from the 24.8% that ranked them at 8th in the league at the conclusion of the regular season.
This, however, was not the first time the 2024-25 power play was cause for concern this season. The Avalanche faced issues with under-producing power play units around midseason, a problem that dubbed them with the infamous "passer play" nickname amongst fans on social media, the remark coming from the team's ability to connect passes but never actually shoot the puck.
After the trade of Mikko Rantanen to Carolina, new acquisitions in Martin Necas and Jack Drury seemed to air out the stale power play energy and gave Colorado a spark that carried them into the postseason. Unfortunately, that spark quicky burned out and the Avalanche failed to score a power play goal in their last three matches of round one against Dallas.
Rantanen, having been traded to the division rivals Starsprior to the deadline in exchange for Logan Stankoven, sent the Avalanche packing with a third period hat-trick and the game-tying goal coming off a Dallas powerplay. Rantanen capped the night with four points, adding an assist on the game winning goal from Wyatt Johnston and then driving the stake in with an empty net goal.
Even so, Avalanche fans cannot place blame on the former Avalanche winger for cutting their team's cup run short as the Avs clearly fumbled away multiple scoring opportunities on the man advantage as well as lost multiple late-game leads.
The biggest question for the Avalanche organization early into the offseason was unsettlement towards the "passer play" and it appears for now, that unease will be settled with the goodbye to Ray Bennett.
Let's hope any more power play concerns will be answered as the Avalanche search for their new power play coach this summer.