The Colorado Avalanche are in position for a playoff spot, but while several teams across the league—including the Winnipeg Jets and Dallas Stars—have clinched their spot in the postseason, the Avalanche have yet to do so. Many view a matchup against the Stars in the first round as the likeliest scenario.
Per MoneyPuck.com, the Avalanche have a 97 percent chance of finishing the season in third place in the Central Division. Their numbers—however they are calculated—have Colorado’s chances of proceeding to each round of the playoffs as follows:
Second Round: 47.3 percent
Third Round: 24.6 percent
Stanley Cup Final: 13.8 percent
Win the Stanley Cup: 7.4 percent
With all that in mind, the Avalanche have seven regular season games remaining in the season. As suggested by the title of this article, their opponents are a mix of “easy” games and teams that will most likely be tougher to beat. Here is a rundown of the team’s remaining schedule for the 2024-25 season.
Colorado Avalanche’s final stretch of games for the 2024-25 season
@ Blackhawks: The Avalanche will play the Blackhawks for the final time this season. They have a chance to even out the win column with the loss column, as they currently sit 1-2 against Chicago. The Blackhawks are a rebuilding team, and while they remain that way, I would hope that the Avalanche’s recent success will continue against the team sitting at the very bottom of the central division.
@ Blue Jackets: As of this writing, the Blue Jackets are 3-6-1 over their last 10 games. That’s not ideal for Columbus. They are currently atop the teams that are looking in to the playoff picture, two points behind the Montreal Canadiens, who are in the second wildcard spot in the Eastern Conference. Two players on the Blue Jackets are dominating the stat sheet in terms of points—defenseman Zach Werenski with 74 and right wing Kirill Marchenko with 70. Both of their goaltenders have a save percentage below 90 percent. The Avalanche will be licking their chops looking at those numbers.
@ St. Louis Blues: Don’t let their name fool you. The Blues are red hot right now, as they have won 10-straight games and are just five points behind the Avalanche in the standings. When the Avalanche face the Blues on April 5th, it will be the second time in eight days. St. Louis beat Colorado in their last meeting 2-1. They’ve won five of those games by more than a goal. I definitely view this one as a challenging matchup, especially with Jordan Binnington or Joel Hofer in goal.
vs. Vegas Golden Knights: Here’s one that will definitely be challenging. The Golden Knights are first in the Pacific Division with 98 points and despite their loss to the Edmonton Oilers on Tuesday, they won their last six games before that. Maybe the Edmonton loss could be a good thing for the Avalanche. However, this is not a situation where the Avalanche have much of a chance of overlooking their opponent. The Avs will know what Vegas is when they both hit the ice.
vs Vancouver Canucks: The Canucks are a middle of the road team in the Pacific division and currently losers of two-straight games. They traded J.T. Miller to the New York Rangers earlier in the season and don’t even have a single player with over 30 goals on the season. With Quinn Hughes, it’s surprising, though he has missed plenty of time with an injury. Brock Boeser and Jake DeBrusk lead Vancouver in goals with 24 each. Former Avalanche Kiefer Sherwood leads the league in hits by a huge margin with 424 hits, which is absolutely insane.
@ Los Angeles Kings: The Kings will be another tough matchup as they are second place in the Pacific Division with 93 points. However, Colorado has beaten Los Angeles in their last three matchups. In those games, Colorado had 13 goals while the Kings had three. Oh, and the Avalanche shutout the Kings in their last game 4-0. Here’s another instance where the Avalanche can’t overlook anybody. They call those trap games.
@ Anaheim Ducks: The Ducks are 4-2 in their last six games and 5-4-1 in their last 10. They have three layers with 20 goals apiece, which currently leads the team. However, they are in sixth place in the Pacific division and are currently on the outside looking in in hopes of grabbing a wildcard spot.
The Avalanche’s schedule is all over the place in terms of difficulty, in my opinion. They just have to continue what they’ve been doing and perhaps do a bit more. Sometimes, an opponent plays out of their mind one night and you could be on the receiving end of that defeat. Hopefully that doesn’t happen for the Avalanche for the remainder of the season, and hopefully they head into the postseason hungry for more.