The Colorado Avalanche are fighting for first place in the Central division in the Western conference. Currently, they are tied with the Winnipeg Jets in points (65) but on the standings, they are in second place. Unfortunate,y the Avs have dropped two games to the Jets, and therefore that is the reason they are not on top of the division.
With that being said, the Colorado Avalanche are by no means out of contention for the top spot in the division and a lot has to do with two key players. Nathan MacKinnon and Cale Makar are at the top of their games right now.
The crazy stat for MacKinnon this season is that he went through a stretch in which he did not record a single goal. Of the team’s 48 games, MacKinnon had not scored a goal in 27 of them. That is insane! MacKinnon still is the leader in the NHL in terms of total points (goals/assists) with 82 and is in a race with Tampa Bay Lightning’s Nikita Kucherov for the top spot in points. In third place is David Pastrnak of the Boston Bruins with 67.
MacKinnon also added onto his point streak at home on Wednesday night, setting a new franchise record at 24 games. At this point, this sort of thing is expected of MacKinnon. He is easily a top-5 player in franchise history.
MacKinnon posted a four-goal, one-assist game on Wednesday against the Washington Capitals, his second four-goal game of the 2023-24 season.
Mikko Rantanen is right behind Kucherov in points with 65, good for fourth place. Rantanen has five game-winning goals this season. Now, I don’t think that Rantanen is going to earn any sort of award, but his production does not go unnoticed. He’s been stellar this season.
When it comes to Cale Makar, the Colorado Avalanche have the greatest defenseman in the entire NHL. He is in 12th place in terms of points on the season and right behind Quinn Hughes of the Vancouver Canucks. No other defenseman is even close to these two players, so they should finish the season in a tight race for the most points by a defenseman if both stay healthy. By no means would I want an injury to Hughes; I want this to play out with both players being as healthy as possible. Let the best guy get the most points and earn the award.