The Colorado Avalanche’s season has come to a gut-wrenching end. Once more, at the hands of the Dallas Stars, once more, in the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs, once more, in a Game 7, and once more to Pete DeBoer. Please excuse me while I clean the vomit from my floor.
Believe me when I say that I hate that we are here. The worst possible outcome to the series I could have imagined. It's like the NHL wrote a horror movie script with the sole intent to torture Avalanche fans. Yet even my favorite spooky storytellers Stephen Graham Jones and Mike Flanagan could not have written and directed something that would mess me up so bad.
I should say outright that I love Jared Bednar as a hockey coach. Earlier in the season I wrote about how he should have been in contention for his first Jack Adams award this year. If you don't know, that is the NHL award given to the best bench boss each campaign. The totally bananas truth is I still think he should've at least been nominated in 2025.
Colorado Avalanche had a regular season unlike any other
The adversity this roster faced throughout the regular season schedule would have crumpled almost any other franchise. The well-documented injury and suspension related woes that saw this squad dressing what amounted to almost half an American Hockey League lineup some nights was an incredible challenge.
By the close of the 82 game schedule, the Avalanche suited up 49 different players. True, that number was inflated by an uncommonly high volume in trades, but that's a point we'll come back to examine soon. Simply put, teams with this kind of roster fluctuation and turnover do not get good results. The fact that the Avalanche weathered such turbulence is a credit to Jared Bednar.
This is not an article where I will fantasize about what could have been if the team were somehow miraculously healthy, but it's worth underscoring the basic facts about how we got here. The trades were frequent and earthshaking.
First you had the exit of both halves of Colorado's opening night goalie tandem. The additions of Scott Wedgewood and Mackenzie Blackwood were bold but ultimately necessary. Colorado almost immediately went from rock bottom in the NHL in goaltending and finished the year out with one of the most reliable duos in net. By the numbers the Avalanche climbed to 17th in overall save percentage, but balancing that average against such an abysmal start takes a superhuman leap.
If you don't think that stat is impressive, consider the Avalanche ended up jumping other playoff clubs Carolina and Montreal in the process, and sat just one spot behind the Edmonton Oilers. In fact, I'm willing to say today that if Mackenzie Blackwood remains healthy enough next year and plays the way he did in his introductory campaign with the Avalanche, he could easily be a 2025-26 Vezina Trophy contender.
Then of course, there was the biggest in-season trade I've ever witnessed: The deal that sent All-Star Mikko Rantanen to the Carolina Hurricanes for Martin Necas and Jack Drury. Each of those players obviously played a part in Saturday's historic heartbreak. Yet the extra steps that got Rantanen from Carolina to Dallas on deadline day could not have been foreseen by anyone.
I understand the hand-wringing and finger-pointing that takes place after such a catastrophic result though. There is a rush to find the right person to blame when the planets align to shatter everything you thought you knew about hockey and fate. If Jared Bednar is fired, it won't exactly surprise me.
Still, I do find myself defending Bednar for the gargantuan difficulty that is losing a top ten offensive talent and then having the unprecedented misfortune to see that prized weapon used so effectively against you in a Game 7. Again, I submit that there is no way in Hades that Colorado would have made such a deal straight up with a division rival.
Why at least some change is inevitable
Alas, Avs' Faithful we are here anyway. This supremely talented organization is stuck in the mud of underachieving based on their expectations. Since hoisting the Stanley Cup in 2022, the Colorado Avalanche have felt three different, but sadly familiar, stings in the postseason.
Two separate first-round exits, both in Game 7s. First, to Seattle in 2023 and then Saturday in Dallas. Two years in a row being eliminated by the same bitter rival in the Stars. In a twisted way, the 2025 loss is like a combination of the previous pair of playoff losses in one terrible bundle of agony.
Even further back in Jared Bednar's tenure, there are more echoes of these same screaming demons. Before the glorious sip from the Stanley Cup in 2022, there was the 2019-20 loss to Dallas in 7, and the follow-up pain of 2020-21, where the Avalanche lost in six games to the Las Vegas Golden Knights, then coached by none other than Bedsy's nemesis Peter DeBoer.
So when critics say there is a history of disappointment with this club, they aren't wrong. Arguably the Avalanche's greatest success in 2022's playoff run was being so dominant that they never had to face a Game 7 situation.
Along the way to becoming the winningest coach in Colorado Avalanche history, Jared Bednar helped rebuild a perennial contender. We here at MHS greatly value coach Bednar and his coaching journey.
Even so, every tenure has its limits. Taking my own heart out of the equation, I am willing to entertain the idea that it may be the end of the line for my favorite hockey coach of all-time. I still hold reservations about what that means. To be honest, I do not like other coaches around the NHL. Speculation on who the replacement might be is the topic of another article.
However, recent moves by my other great sports obsession, the Denver Nuggets, also owned by the Kroenke family, demonstrate a fundamental truth about ownership. They are willing to move on from championship pedigree.
The shocking firing of Nuggets coach Michael Malone with just a few games left in the regular season surprised everyone. But, unlike the Avalanche, the Nuggets thankfully prevailed in their own Game 7 on Saturday.
Obviously, this is not a guarantee that a similar change awaits Bednar, but it is likely a factor in long-term management strategy. This year has already seen seismic changes for the Avalanche. It would only be wise to brace for the strong possibility of more foundational shifts in the coming days.