Back to the Colorado Avalanche Newsfeed

Analysis: Five key questions for Avalanche going into stretch run

From top to bottom, the Avs might have their best team in 18 years, the last time they advanced to the Western Conference Finals and a year after they won their second Stanley Cup in 2001.

Here are five key questions heading into the second half, when Colorado comes out of its 11-day break between games at Philadelphia.

Are they contenders?

They aren’t pretenders, a label which could have been applied to last season’s team that came a Game 7 win shy of the Western Conference Finals.

The Avs are much-improved offensively with the offseason acquisitions of forwards Nazem Kadri, Andre Burakovsky, Joonas Donskoi and Valeri Nichushkin.