Every year, there are 15 teams that finish a grueling NHL season with playoff failure.
The last loss, the last time the locker room opens and the media shuffles in to ask questions about what went wrong, is always a tough scene. For the past two years, that end for the Colorado Avalanche has been stunning.
It’s a different kind of silence, a different kind of pain. Two years ago, it was the sudden shock in Dallas, a Game 7 collapse for the ages.
Last season it was something equally hard to process, but also different. One bad week erased a season’s worth of dominance.
The Avs are back on the ice on Wednesday night. The expectations remain the same. The roster is largely the same, as well.
“I think if we just did the exact same thing over again, I think we could have won the (Stanley) Cup last year,” Avs star Nathan MacKinnon told The Denver Post. “It just didn’t work out.
“I mean, we’re not changing anything. Hopefully, it works.”
At this time a year ago, there was a clear theme for this Avalanche group. The hurt they felt in that locker room in Dallas after Game 7 was still with them. The mission was clear: No Game 7s in someone else’s barn.
That led to the greatest regular season in franchise history. Colorado led the NHL in everything except the power play, en route to 121 points. The Avs cruised past the Los Angeles Kings, who are the opponent Wednesday night at Ball Arena in the season opener, and the Minnesota Wild.
Then, it all fell apart. The Vegas Golden Knights snuffed out a “team of destiny” kind of year with a shocking four-game sweep in the Western Conference Final.
“I mean, it is hard to win,” NHL Network analyst Brian Boyle said. “You’re always going to have a chance and be on everyone’s list when you have these super talents like (Cale) Makar and MacKinnon.
“It wasn’t like they were cruising through the league last year because their power play was so great or something like that. They just overwhelmed teams. It was a head-scratcher. How they went out — nobody would have predicted that.”
When it ended, the silence in the visiting T-Mobile Arena dressing room was palpable. Makar struggled to remove his gear and the pain that would lead to offseason surgery was evident.
MacKinnon was in the training room, getting further attention for an injury that had knocked him out of Game 3 and effectively ended the series.
“Itap just so hard,” MacKinnon said. “We had a bunch of leads. We controlled the play. (Carter) Hart was unbelievable against us and they’re a great team. Obviously everyone is hurt (in the playoffs), but we had some big injuries. I think we’ve just got to try again, try hard and … try hard again.”
‘It feels like a long time’
The Avs are in a unique place among the 32 NHL teams in September 2026.
There are the clear title contenders who have won the last time the core was healthy — Carolina and Florida. Both of those teams and fan bases obviously believe they can do it again.
There is Vegas, which won in 2023 and reached Game 6 of the Cup Final last year. The Knights have a new coach, but also essentially the same core group. There’s little to question in Sin City, outside of the coaching decision, on the ice, at least.
There’s the contenders who haven’t won together, like Edmonton and Dallas, and the obvious pressure those teams face.
Then there’s the Avs. In 2022, they were the league’s next superpower. There is still a core group of champions here. But the dynasty did not happen.
“We have won, but it feels like a long time,” MacKinnon said on media day earlier this month.
The time that has passed has been filled with great regular-season success and a variety of playoff disappointments. The Avs are again expected to be among the top teams in the NHL, but there’s a different elixir of external emotions in Denver than in some of the other cities with teams that expect to be great.
Will this group win another Cup? The answer to that, in recent years, has always been yes. Surely, another title is coming.
But after four misses, including two in stunning fashion, it’s getting closer to the days when that question will become: Can this group actually win again?
“I haven’t experienced being on the right side of it, but I’ve been close a number of times,” Avs defenseman Brett Kulak said. “I think being there, getting to the end and being in that handful of teams, itap just a matter of time.
“When you realize the team we have in here, this is a team that has everything you need to have to win the Cup. Thatap exciting. I think it drives everyone every day. You don’t want to waste this opportunity.”
Not long after the Avs lost to the Golden Knights, while the shock was still wearing off, the Hurricanes broke through and won the Stanley Cup for the second time in franchise history. It was the first time for a core of players, and for Rod Brind’Amour as coach, since he captained the first title winner in Raleigh.
Some players hate to watch the playoffs after their team is knocked out. For the Avs who were watching Jordan Staal and friends celebrate, there was a bit of hope to be found during some otherwise dark days.
“Watching the Hurricanes win, they’ve had a lot of playoff failures over the years and they stuck with it,” MacKinnon said. “They haven’t changed their system. They haven’t changed the coach. Their style is the same. I think thatap a little bit of inspiration, maybe, for our mentality.”
‘We want to win every year’
After a summer of reflection and recovery, the Avs are back and again expected to contend for a championship.
Coach Jared Bednar revealed that he wants to approach his job a little differently this season, but there were no sweeping changes this offseason. Don’t expect to see many radical differences on the ice, either.
When the expectations are championship-or-bust and it comes up bust for four consecutive seasons, there is going to be external pressure to change. It’s a little different for the Avs because they have won the Cup together.
Unlike what the Hurricanes dealt with before last season, the Avs’ way did work in the 2022 playoffs. While the loss to the Knights was befuddling and surprising, there weren’t many clear, definable reasons it happened that would be easy to correct.
“You have to prepare yourself, play your best and then see what happens,” MacKinnon said. “What are the Knights going to do differently (after losing to Carolina)? Probably not much.”
It wasn’t a splashy offseason. The general manager, Chris MacFarland, left, but his replacement is Joe Sakic, a franchise icon and the guy who built a Stanley Cup champion in 2022.
There are three forwards to replace up front, most notably Valeri Nichushkin, but there are also three players, including Kulak, who arrived before the deadline last year and are back and settled.
There was a definable theme at this time last year. There isn’t one right now.
Is that a potential problem? If anything, there was palpable defiance for some of the Avs players when they were asked to talk about last year and past failures again.
“We want to win every year,” Avs defenseman Josh Manson said. “We think we have a team that can win every year. We lost to Dallas. We were pissed off. We wanted to win so bad. We lost to Dallas again. We were pissed off. We wanted to win so bad. We come back, and we lost to Vegas. I don’t come into this season going, ‘Oh, there’s another level I can get to with wanting to win.’ I want to win bad every single season. I think everybody in this room is like that, and thatap why we’re usually successful.”
When this Avs core was younger, there were questions about whether 30they could learn to do it at the most important time of the year. They stumbled in 2020, losing a wild Game 7 to Dallas (sound familiar?).
They stumbled again in 2021, winning the Presidents’ Trophy, starting the playoffs hot before losing four in a row to Vegas (sound familiar?).
Maybe history will repeat itself for the Avs, and the year after finishing with the best record but coming up short will provide the last little bit this group needs to get back to the NHL’s mountaintop.
“I don’t think it should be an overthinking kind of thing,” Mason said. “We have good teams. We’re a hungry team. I think we can win. Thatap it.”
