Win or lose, the Avalanche’s season will be celebrated Saturday in the regular-season finale against the St. Louis Blues at the .
There’s a good chance that game will determine a playoff spot for Colorado, which finished a distant last in the NHL a year ago with a club-record-low 48 points; or the Blues, who ended with 99 points last season and have underachieved in 2017-18.
The Central Division rivals were tied with 92 points — the second Western Conference wild-card playoff spot — entering Saturday, when St. Louis played at Arizona to match Colorado’s 78 games-played.
Saturday’s game in Denver — the Avalanche’s fourth game in the final week, each to be played without goalie (groin) and defenseman (fractured patella) — will feature one of the league’s most surprising teams and one of its most disappointing. And for that, the Avs and their fans should celebrate after the game — win or lose, playoffs or not.
The game will start at 7 p.m. and the party will last well into next Sunday and beyond. There might be some painful “we-were-so-close” moments but the giant turnaround should nevertheless promote appreciation and positively for the future.
Let’s points out the big gains:
- Colorado, Columbus and Nashville are the only NHL teams to produced 10-game winning streaks this season, and the Avs are the only team to do that AND produce a 10-game winning streak at home.
- The Avs are 27-11-2 at home — tied for the second-most wins in club history. With a win Saturday, Colorado will tie the 2000-01 Stanley Cup-winning team in seasonal success at home. And the current Avs had a 16-3-1 home stretch — the best-ever 20-game home stretch of its kind in club history.
- If the regular season had ended Saturday and the Avs played in the Eastern Conference, they would comfortably finish in the second wild-card playoff berth. Overall, their 92 points were tied for 14th-most in the 31-team league.
- The Avs had big success against the biggest-named teams. They were 2-0 against the two-time defending Cup champion and also swept the two-game series with the , and . Colorado was 3-0-1 against divisional rivals Chicago and Minnesota.
- Hart Trophy candidate established himself as the Avalanche’s best offensive player since , the team’s current general manager. MacKinnon’s 93 points in 70 games is the club’s most points since Sakic had 100 in 82 games in 2006-07. MacKinnon, who is second in the league in points-per-game (1.33) behind Boston’s Brad Marchand (1.35), leads the NHL in scoring at home with 65 points (26 goals). MacKinnon’s 38 goals are most by an Avalanche player since Milan Hejduk had a league-leading 50 in 2002-03.
- MacKinnon and wingers and — aka the MGM Line — have become one of the NHL’s best lines, and Rantanen, 21, is one of the league’s burgeoning stars.
- The Avs are the NHL’s youngest team, with an average age of 25.7. Sakic went with youth and he got the results.
The Avalanche is on pace to double its points from a year ago, from 48 to 96 or more. And for that, there can be no disappointment this season.
NHL Spotlight on Troy Terry, RW,
When: The Avalanche on Sunday begins a crucial three-game California road trip against Terry and the Ducks at Honda Center. The Avs also play at the on Monday and at the on Thursday.
What’s up: Terry, the Highlands Ranch product from the University of Denver, made his NHL debut Tuesday at Vancouver, just two days after the Pioneers were eliminated from the NCAA Tournament by Ohio State in the Midwest Regional final in Allentown, Pa. Terry logged 12:12 against the Canucks and was slated to play his second career game Friday against the Kings in Anaheim. If he remains in the lineup, his third career game will be against the Avalanche, the team he grew up rooting for.
Background: Terry played youth hockey for the Littleton Hawks (Tier 11) and Colorado Thunderbirds (Tier 1). He played one year for the U.S. National Development Program in Ann Arbor, Mich., before graduating high school in three years and joining DU at age 17. As one of the youngest players in his first draft-eligible year, Terry was selected by the Ducks in the fifth round (No. 148 overall) in 2015.
Chambers’ take: In addition to Terry, the Avalanche might also play against Dylan Gambrell in Thursday’s game in San Jose. Gambrell and Terry were junior classmates at DU last week, and among four Pioneers to forego remaining NCAA eligibility to sign NHL contracts within two days of their loss to the Buckeyes. Junior defenseman Blake Hillman signed with Chicago and sophomore center Henrik Borgstrom agreed to terms with Florida.
