Colorado Avalanche: Early Storylines To Watch (2023 Season)
After the first two games of the 2023-2024 season, the Colorado Avalanche stand at a perfect 2-0 record. While the two games ended up going very differently there were some interesting things to take note of when comparing to the Avalanche of the last couple of seasons.
What is different?
One of the first things that I noticed right away was the impact that newly Acquired centerman Ryan Johansen has had on the team. While most will take a look at his 0 points after 2 games and think that he hasn’t done or changed anything I would venture to say that would be wrong. The biggest thing that I have noticed with Johansen is how it’s changed how Coach Bednar goes about coaching and the strategies that he is able to employ with him on the team.
One prime example of this comes with just under 3 minutes left in last night’s game against the San Jose Sharks. The Avalanche were down 1-0 despite putting up 44 shots on goal to that point in the game. With the faceoff deep in the San Jose zone, Bednar decides to pull the goalie. Johansen was out for the face-off and won the draw, they eventually got another shot to Blackwood and he froze the puck. This repeated again and again and on the third and final time, Cale Makar scored the game-tying goal.
In the same game, Bednar has Johansen on the ice to start the overtime period, and as soon as the face-off is over Johansen gets off the ice. This is something that coach Bednar liked to do with Nazem Kadri a couple of seasons ago. Last season they did not have someone who was good enough on the face-off consistently that you could make an actual gamble on him winning the face-off and planning accordingly.
A more casual hockey fan may not have even noticed that this happened, but it is something that is going to become a huge weapon for them the longer into the season they get. When they get into the tight-checking playoff games this is one key weapon that the team did not have last season. When they had this kind of weapon (albeit a lesser quality face-off percentage-wise) the Avalanche went on to win the Stanley Cup.
What else does Johansen bring to the team?
Another thing that has stood out to me after the first two games with Ryan Johansen is his ability to make quick out-touch finesse passes. Especially from the bumper position on the powerplay. He has a very high skill ability and he can just barely touch the puck and lay it off or redirect it right to the next player in line. This is going to be something interesting to watch as the season progresses to see if this high skill level is able to translate into production for the Avalanche or not but at this point in time it is definitely a storyline to watch for.
Colton Ross
Colton Ross never really was played on the penalty kill with the Tampa Bay Lightning. This is something that he said in an interview during last night’s game that he has played there a lot when he was younger and he is excited to be able to show what he can do on the penalty kill at the NHL level with the Avalanche now. In his first game, he ended up with 2 blocked shots played on the penalty kill, had 3 shots on goal, and 1 assist.
In game 2 he continued to get ice time on the penalty kill. For not playing it in a long time and doing it at the NHL level seeing how good he was out there gives me hope that he will only continue to get better with more repetition. This is something that I was not anticipating when the Avalanche brought him into the team but I am excited to see how this develops throughout the season. The entire third line the Avalanche brought in is its own storyline to watch as well.
The Jonathan Drouin Effect
The pure creative ability that Drouin brings especially on the power play with all the top-end talent the Avalanche have is astounding. In the last few seasons the Avalanche’s power play has been one of the better ones in the league pretty consistently with guys like Mikko Rantanen Nathan MacKinnon and Cale Makar you would expect this, but when you add in someone who can completely alter the point of attack and make passes that most would not expect to be possible it completely changes what is possible from the unit. Drouin possesses the unique ability to attack differently on the same power player each time he touches the puck. Instead of trying to continuously work the puck around until MacKinnon can get to his spot and let his patented one-timer go with Drouin, they can attack from the half boards they can go behind the net they can attack from the point. He can make all of the passes and he sees the ice as well as some of the greats playing the game today. This is something that is going to be very fun to watch develop and progress as they are able to add more wrinkles into the attack throughout the course of the season as they all get more comfortable playing together.
Something else not mentioned too much yet is that I think that a big chunk of this determination and crazy-focused Mackinnon this season is in no small part due to Drouin being on the team. We all know the history they share together and as much as MacKinnon wants to win another cup for himself, the team, and the fans it seems like he feels as if this is his chance to help his good buddy reach a new high in his NHL career and to reach a dream he’s had since he first started to play hockey as well. When you pair that with the pure joy and happiness that MacKinnon has of being able to play with one of his best friends again, and at the top level in the world this time, with the internal competitor that MacKinnon is, wanting to shut everyone up about McDavid and show the world that he can put up as many points as him this season it makes me feel like we are in for something truly special this season out of MacKinnon. To add a little more fuel to that fire he starts off the season with a 4-point night. This is going to be fun to watch all season long.
One final thing that I will mention is this Avalanche core group historically has been very slow out of the gate in the first 10-15 games of the season. For whatever reason that is just how it has been with them. the last few seasons getting into a game where you are just getting absolutely “goalied” like they were until the ending minutes of last night’s game would have been enough for the team to just pack it in and say well we did our best we weren’t going to beat that guy tonight and move onto the next game. The fact that they battled as hard as they did and kept pushing and were able to break through and get the game tied up and then finish the job in the shoot-out says a lot about not only this team but also their mentality to start this season. The slow-starting history of this core group of avalanche players will not continue this season. This team is on a mission and they know what it takes.
Will this determined mentality stay throughout the whole season when things get tougher? Will they stay with it when things don’t go their way, when the opposition comes up, when calls go the wrong way when the bounces are going against them all night? We shall see, but it’s one of the storylines I am excited to see play out.
While there are many more storylines to watch this season these have been a few of the ones I am most excited to see play out. What storylines are you excited to see this season? Did I miss one of your favorites? Let me know in the comments! I can’t wait to hear what you are excited about for this season!
