After two days away from the ice, the Avalanche will practice today and play a game Wednesday night.
Sound familiar?
It was the cycle the Avs followed – or had to follow – during the blizzard last week, culminating with a Saturday night victory over the Chicago Blackhawks at the Pepsi Center.
This time, Colorado had two days off because of the collective bargaining agreement-mandated Christmas break. It will resume league play against the Dallas Stars at home Wednesday.
It all adds up to the Avs being off the ice for four days in a six-day period. And with some snow shoveling, holiday meals, perhaps even some last- minute shopping at the mall – where even the most gentle of souls can display unsportsmanlike conduct worthy of a two-minute minor while searching for a parking spot – it seems the potential is there for a flat Avalanche effort in the team’s first post-Christmas game.
“I hope we’ll get ourselves ready, knowing we haven’t been on the ice a lot for this stretch of time,” Avalanche coach Joel Quenneville said. “They do play the night before, so they’ll be ready.”
The Stars play tonight at Chicago.
The Avs came out of the break in a three-way tie for first place in the Northwest Division, at 18-15-2 and 38 points, with Edmonton and Minnesota. Strangely, in the Western Conference standings, that left the three teams essentially sharing the third, seventh and eighth positions. The division winner automatically gets one of the top three seeds – which this season almost certainly will be No. 3, behind the Pacific and Central winners. And in the conference standings coming out of the break, Colorado was at No. 3 because of tiebreakers.
Calgary, only a point behind the Northwest leaders, was in a non- playoff spot, at ninth. At one point, it seemed a lock the top three teams in the Northwest would join Anaheim, San Jose and Dallas from the Pacific, plus Detroit and Nashville in the Central, in the postseason. But Chicago’s revival in the Central raises the possibility Colorado would have to finish second in the Northwest just to make the playoffs.
Yes, the franchise which in the pre-salary cap era took for granted making the postseason is at least for now in that huge on- the-bubble group of teams.
Last season, when the Avalanche was the No. 7 seed in the conference, tying in points with No. 8 Edmonton, the Colorado record was 18-14-3 at this point, for 39 points. Yet both this season’s and last season’s marks at this point are better than the 35 points the Avalanche had after 35 games in 1998-99 and the 36 it had in 1999-2000.
The simplest course for the Avalanche to keep alive the streak of never missing the playoffs as a Denver-based franchise would be to win the division and get home ice in the first round, regardless of the way the point totals fall in the Western Conference.
The Northwest winner would have home ice in the first round even if the sixth seed, as seems highly possible, has more points. That scenario illustrates why winning the intradivisional games, which make up nearly 40 percent of the schedule, is more important than ever in this kind of race.
All that said, Colorado doesn’t play a Northwest opponent again until Jan. 6 at Minnesota.
Footnotes
At the break, the Avs’ Paul Stastny (11 goals, 21 assists, 32 points) and Wojtek Wolski (10-13-23) are third and fifth in NHL rookie scoring, about where they have been most of the season. Pittsburgh’s Evgeni Malkin leads with 33 points (including 17 goals), and Los Angeles’ Anze Kopitar is second with 32 points (including 11 goals). Former University of Denver defenseman Matt Carle is sixth. The San Jose Sharks rookie has 10 goals and 23 points. Among all league defensemen, only Montreal’s Sheldon Souray (12) and Dallas’ Philippe Boucher (12) have more goals than Carle. … The Avalanche’s home attendance average this season – 17,611 – ranks 13th in the 30-team league. The Avs’ 97.8 percent of capacity figure ranks 14th. … After facing the Stars, the Avalanche has an old-fashioned, barn-to-barn series against the Blues, Friday in Denver and Saturday in St. Louis.
Staff writer Terry Frei can be reached at 303-954-1895 or tfrei@denverpost.com.
