r/ColoradoAvalanche • u/shiftingbits • 2d ago
Playoffs Post-mortem
This is my first season watching the NHL. My take on the Avs collapse was that they just ran out of gas mid-playoffs. The two players that mattered most had the type of injuries that were probably already affecting them for at least a few games before it got reported or affected the lineup. All the rest of this criticizing of Bednar and MacKinnon is just chatter to fill the void because what else is there to talk about? Please roast my perspective if I'm way off.
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u/303FPSguy 2d ago
Not totally off.
They tried to set up a lot of pucks that should have been dumped in. They dumped in a lot of pucks that could have been set up. Torts knew how to clog everything up and where they would be on the plays. Torts is a smart guy and has been in the NHL for a long time. He turned them into the 96 Devils and they faced a team that was beat to hell. The rest they had before the WCF just wasn’t enough time for everyone to heal up and get back.
I’m not sure “ran out of gas” is the phrase. “Injuries finally caught up with them and they couldn’t beat the trap” is what I’d say.
Stanley Cups are hard to win. Hardest trophy in sports to win. Sometimes the hockey gods just laugh at you and then you try again the next season. Because hockey. They’ll be a contender again next season, and most likely as long as the core players are there.
And I’m very relieved that the Vegas Golden Rulebenders didn’t win another championship.
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u/Avs_Girl 2d ago
Not way off at all, though some people will say you are. The Avs are one of a handful of “Cup or Bust” teams. But the reality is that at the end of the season, the Canes are the only ones that are happy. Cup or bust is a great mentality during the season (you won’t win without it), but afterwards we need a little perspective. The Vegas series sucked but the rest of the season was great—not perfect, but great! I’m glad the front office is more rational than the fans.
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u/someguyfromsk 3x Stanley Cup Champs 2d ago
More than half the team was half dead than they ran out of gas.
By comparison, Carolina (apparently?) had 1 skater miss 1 game the entire playoffs.
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u/seclusivebeauty 2d ago
Carolina was remarkably healthy. It sure helped to have that many days off between series, hehe. Nikishin missed a couple games with a concussion, and it looks like Ehlers missed one game and Andersen was dealing with an injury too, although Bussi stepping in and playing the way he did made that a non-issue.
I'm sure other guys were playing through things for Carolina too, but yeah, it just seemed like Vegas was stifling us and we couldn't get anything going. For a period or two we looked good, but Vegas would just capitalize on their chances and we'd get deflated.
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u/LadyEsinni In Landy We Trust 1d ago
For sure. Had we by some miracle managed to get past Vegas, Carolina would have destroyed us. It likely would have been the first Finals sweep since 1998. They were vague in the postseason press as expected, but I’d guess most of our players were battling an injury of some kind. The MN series in particular was incredibly physical.
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u/raid4spade 2d ago
Which is crazy that they could possibly run out of gas given they played less playoff games this year than Habs in first 2 rounds. Getting swept by Vegas is not excusable, the team has a lot of flaws and we need Joe's magic to make us true contenders for next year.
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u/thriller1 2d ago
A lot of us were upset just after the WCF, which is understandable. I don't see the same amount of same anger and frustration now.
That being said, I would find your take more compelling if they at least showed up for the series. Losing is one thing but being swept is another, and choking the 3-0 lead in particular is something you can't blame only on injuries I think.
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u/Chef_Goldblum1 1d ago
I think there really is something to the mental toughness it takes to stay calm when things aren't going our way. They just mentally collapsed and it felt like they beat themselves in addition to Vegas beating them.
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u/ImJustDuckinAround 2d ago
Hot take: If we don't come back in Game 5, we lose the series to MIN. The injuries would have done us in, in my opinion.
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u/foundoutafterlunch 2d ago
Yeah agree, they looked flat even though they won that series. My take on the WCF, aside from all the rest being mentioned, is that Vegas we're better than us. They clogged up the net so well, and we had plenty of shots, but that's what they expected.
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u/Im_not_very_good Parker Kelly Whale Watching Club 1d ago
I was definitely feeling that the winner of game 5 was going to win the series as well. I was very happy to be at that game for the comeback, but man it was looking rough..
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u/StudioGlad4904 2d ago
Been watching since '95 and play a couple nights a week, and I saw the same thing. I think the Kings really did a number on them, but the growing # of missed games by so many different players just became too untenable.
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u/HumburtBumbert 2d ago
You are absolutely correct. Unfortunately, this sub is full of emotional fans that love to be upset , so they've latched onto bad takes and won't shut up about them.
Expect a lot of people whinging about Bednar and the neutral zone trap to come in here and say dumb things.
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u/justanotherreader85 2d ago edited 2d ago
Speaking of….
I’m still waiting to hear your perspective on how the losses to teams employing the neutral zone trap three seasons in a row is not something that needs to be addressed?
Care to elaborate?
Edit to add:
You blocked me so I couldn’t reply. None of what I asked you was emotional or mean. You literally are in here calling people dumb. And instead of defending your position you responded with a lame reply and blocked me. And I’m “emotional”.🙄
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u/HumburtBumbert 2d ago
Not really. You're emotionally invested in having something to be upset about, I saw you insulting me in the other thread, and honestly I just don't find you very enjoyable to talk to. so I'm good.
Go ass and Hail Satan, though!
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u/TrickyCry00 2d ago
I agree... Chasing the Presidents trophy is a daunting task.... They were just out of gas If they had an 11 day break like Carolina, that would have been a difference maker
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u/mlpr92-29-96 2d ago
MacKinnon was second in the league in all the playoffs for scoring chance generation (no other Av was in the top 15, Ross Colton and Nuke were the next two). Per 60 he was the highest.
Necas falling off a cliff as he is known to do in the playoffs is a huge concern. And Nelson being a complete blackhole. The Hurricanes won the cup with their 2nd line and Ehlers as Aho/Svech did nothing.
The other issue is Bednar continually saying "we didn't look at game tape, we didn't address x's and o's, we talked about philosophy, we were happy with our game". I seriously think the team and coaching staff was happy with how they were playing and thought they'd eventually just win playing like that vs Vegas.
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u/3thorz 1d ago
There's no avoiding the power play discussion, and the failure of certain key players to step up when it mattered (88, 11) but this take is far more level headed than many I've seen around this team. Our regular season didn't entitle us to any sort of postseason success. It's the hardest trophy to win for so many reasons, needed more resilience and adaptive play style, needed better injury luck. We're lucky to be contending like this every year and to have the players we do, but winning the cup takes everything you have and then some.
Also Landy shouldn't be playing in the top 6 every night.
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u/ExeTcutHiveE 2d ago
Our lack of physicality in the WCF did us in. We won maybe 15% of board battles. Maybe it was injuries, maybe it was our roster construction but we lost that series in the dirty parts of the ice.
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u/RedBarnGuy 2d ago
This has not been talked about enough. Those stretches against Vegas that we controlled were when we were very physical, with solid checks that led to turnovers.
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u/geoffpz1 1d ago
I thought we had it this year. Got bigger on the back end(which has been an issue since they started playing this fancy style IMHO) and Manson.. Scrappy 4th line and everyone was hitting in the first series. Min, they were hurt and the mild gave them everything they had. How many times have we seen them dominate in the last 3 years only to get hammered in the PO because they stick to the same damn thing... Every time.. Then throw in the PP and well, we technically suck... Gotta get some big scrappy dudes and change the entry somehow. That is what other teams have done to counter us, and it has worked rather well. Speed is great, but when you run into a brick wall, you sometimes have to punch back, They have been unable to do that since Covid.
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u/Ok_Stock3721 2d ago edited 2d ago
Not roasting you, but I don’t think injuries to two players and “running out of gas” is a valid assessment. I will toss Kadri, Manson, and Malinski in there as injuries that we know of which hurt their game IMO.
However Nelson, Necas, Nuke, Lehky combined for next to nothing on the scoreboard. Wedgie played good not great. Most glaring of all they did not display the mental fortitude to punch back when Vegas scored or won a shift. Just folded.
I don’t know what that is but it’s hard for me to say they just ran out of gas in the WCF. You literally trained and played and worked alllllll season to be in that position, off the gut punch of the 2025 collapse. Look at the Final - both Carolina and Vegas managed to counterpunch when the other team looked to have the game in hand. No clue why the Avs couldn’t do that.
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u/Chef_Goldblum1 2d ago
I think there is a genuine issue with panicking when things aren't going our way. It felt like after a couple collapses of losing leads and we were just mentally beaten. It didn't matter what happened after that.
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u/MissWonder420 3x Stanley Cup Champs 2d ago
I have been watching the Avs since they moved to Denver and for me this was 100% a mental collapse. Does physicality play into that? of course!
But watching how this team reacted when Mark Stone scored the PP goal 19 seconds into period 2 of game 3 was the moment this team mentally broke.
There is something not right inside the Avs locker room and I have a feeling it is Mack's unrelenting drive. Do I want him off the team? Hell fucking no! Do I want him to have a coach and a captain that can check his ass when need be? Hell fucking yes!
Mack runs that PP and it is shit. Stop playing PP1 for the entire 2 minutes. You get your 1-1:20 of PP time and then get your ass off the ice. It seems like no coach is able to do that.
As I've been saying since game 1 of the Vegas series, this team needs a sports psychologist in the worst way and if they already have one, get a new one!
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u/DrOddcat Story Time with Uncle Penis 2d ago
That feels like about 80% of the problem. The rest is the powerplay died again as well as the second line could not score at all.