The Colorado Avalanche are still at the top of the NHL standings at 35-8-9 with 79 points through 52 games played and are, at this point, in no danger of surrendering the top spot in the league. The Avs are in a good position as we are over 60 percent of the way through the season. However, the team does have its flaw(s).
Every once in a while, it’s cool to check out some power rankings. Where do popular outlets have your favorite team among the rest of the league? For the Avalanche, it’s been at the top all year long, and for good reason. They just simply have been unstoppable for the first several months of the season—up until recently, that is.
So, if they aren’t the top team in the league anymore, where are they? Well, one outlet placed them at the No. 2 spot, behind just the Tampa Bay Lightning. The catch with these power rankings? They chose to write haikus for each and every team—whatever counts as a haiku and whatever fits that specific team. It’s actually pretty funny how accurate the one for the Avalanche is…
“Chasing history
Until the holidays’ end
Since then? Pretty mid”
That’s what Sean Gentille and Dom Luszczyszyn of The Athletic came up with for the Avalanche. It’s actually a really good one. Yeah, the Avalanche are chasing history. But they have lost a little bit of their spark as of late.
The Avs are 1-4 in their last five games, falling to the Canadiens, Senators, Flyers, and the Ducks, while sneaking in a win against the Maple Leafs. As a whole, the Avs are 5-8 in their month of January, which is their worst month of this season. In October, they went 7-3-4.
It remains to be seen what Colorado is going to do (if anything) ahead of the trade deadline. Me? I would perhaps look to add someone who could potentially make an impact on special teams. The Avs are near the bottom of the league in power play percentage, and it’s really their lone notable weakness. They just can’t score consistently on the power play if their life depended on it. It’s embarrassing at this point. (They’ve dipped to 29th overall).
Getting Devon Toews and Gabriel Landeskog should boost the Avalanche as we head into the final stretches of the 2025-26 regular season, though it remains to be seen when either of tthose players is set to return, officially. It appears that Toews is much closer than the Avs captain, though. We’ll gladly take either one of them back into the mix as soon as possible. The team has not played up to its standards lately, and adding Toews and his talents back into the fold should help things a great deal. Getting Cale Makar’s line mate back should do wonders for the team.
The Avalanche should view this haiku activity as a form of disrespect. It should add fuel to their fire. While they have done great overall this season, they know that what they’ve shown in January is not good enough. It’s not up to their standards. Colorado needs to do their job to avoid being labelled as the laughing stock of the NHL.