This past summer, the Colorado Avalanche added several quality pieces – Nazem Kadri, Andre Burakovsky, Joonas Donskoi, etc. – to a team that was already good enough to trample the Western Conference-winning Calgary Flames in a playoff series.
As such, many expected the Avalanche to be one of the NHL’s best teams this year. They certainly looked the part in the early going, jumping out to an 8-2-1 start.
Somewhat lengthy injuries to Mikko Rantanen and Gabriel Landeskog seemed destined to knock things off the rails. That’s what you’d expect from a team losing two of their very best players.