Coming off a Stanley Cup Championship, expectations for the Colorado Avalanche to repeat were reasonable. No one in the NHL boasts a better big three than Nathan MacKinnon, Mikko Rantanen, and Cale Makar, and those three alone can almost win a series on their own.
Almost.
The difference this year was the depth, or lack thereof, and this is where the discourse around the Avs was a bit maddening. Turn on any radio station during the season and you’d hear some form of “Where did the Avalanche go?” dominating the discourse in the moments between the daily Broncos updates on the 3rd string quarterback.