This is where things could get interesting.

The Avs look set in net, both at the NHL level and beyond, for next season. The defense corps needs some work, but there’s an excellent top four to build around.

But the place to look for where newly named general manager Joe Sakic might shake up this roster for next season is on the wings. It already started Tuesday, when the Avalanche sent Ross Colton to the Nashville Predators, reuniting him with Chris MacFarland, for two third-round picks.

And Colton might not be the only wing who isn’t on the roster on opening night.

What just happened

When all of Colorado’s wings were healthy last season, it was hard to name more than one or two teams with a better collection of them in the NHL.

Martin Necas had a career season, setting new highs with 38 goals and 100 points. He was also Czechia’s best player at the 2026 Winter Olympics, had a great second round against the Minnesota Wild and then was one of Colorado’s least impactful players against Vegas in the Western Conference Final.

Gabe Landeskog’s brilliant comeback story continued. He won the Bill Masterton Memorial Trophy, did not miss a game in the regular season because of his reconstructed knee and then had five goals and 11 points in 13 playoff games.

Valeri Nichushkin and Artturi Lehkonen were both very good and very important players, though neither produced goals at the same per-contest rate as they have in recent seasons. Both also missed time during the playoffs with injuries, and their effectiveness was limited by said ailments in other contests as well.

Colton scuffled for long stretches in the regular season and spent the first two games of the playoffs as a healthy scratch, but was one of the club’s more consistent players once inserted into the lineup. Nicolas Roy, who also saw some time at center, was a great fit as a depth scorer and versatile player after arriving from Toronto ahead of the trade deadline.

Parker Kelly had a dream season, smashing career-best totals with 21 goals and 35 points. Logan O’Connor missed nearly the entire regular season, but looked like the critical depth playoff performer of old once the postseason began.

Joel Kiviranta’s year after a breakout offensive campaign did not look as impressive on the scoresheet as the 2024-25 season, but he remained a trusted depth guy for coach Jared Bednar. Zakhar Bardakov made the team in training camp and showed flashes of intriguing energy, but the NHL rookie played in just four of the final 12 regular-season games and did not play in the playoffs. He is a restricted free agent and could return to Russia because there isn’t an obvious path to more regular time next year in Denver.

Gavin Brindley was the club’s best rookie and an early-season spark plug, but he was sent to the AHL shortly after the Avs loaded up at the deadline and did not return. Taylor Makar made the most appearances (12) of a forward who began the season with the Colorado Eagles and looked like a player who might turn out to be a fourth-line regular at some point in the future.

What¶¶Òõap next

Colton is gone … will anyone else from this group join him?

Necas is about to start the first season of an eight-year, $92 million contract. His full no-move clause kicks in July 1. He could finish with 110 points next season, but he can’t answer the big-picture questions about his ultimate value until the 2027 playoffs.

When Nichushkin and Lehkonen are healthy and in form, they give the Avs star-level value on very team-friendly contracts. But, the first part of that sentence feels more in question, given their ages and style of play. Lehkonen is also entering the final year of his contract, so all options — an extension, playing it out or a trade — seem plausible.

In each of the past two postseasons when Colorado advanced beyond the first round, Lehkonen’s impact declined. That was definitely injury-related in 2026. Nichushkin’s availability issues have been well documented.

Not everyone in this core group will age at the same rate. Finding a way to inject another impact player into this group that is closer to Necas’ age or even younger would be ideal, but the Avs don’t have the future assets (nor the cap flexibility) to do that right now. Trading another outer-circle core piece might be the only avenue.

Landeskog had no tangible issues with his knee this year, but that doesn’t mean it’s fine in perpetuity. His value obviously goes far beyond the production. Colton has to be replaced, though there could be an internal candidate or two — at least to start next season.

Either Roy or Kelly could end up back at center if Jack Drury doesn’t return. Conversely, Nazem Kadri could slide to the wing to help one of the top-two lines if Bednar thinks one of the depth guys can handle the No. 3 center spot.

Brindley and Makar will be two guys to watch during training camp, along with T.J. Hughes, who had no trouble being an impact guy for the Eagles, but his ultimate NHL ceiling is both unclear and fascinating.

There are lots of questions here:

1. Will the Avs just run this group back, minus Colton, and expect either better health luck, improved postseason results or both?

2. Will the Avs be able to find a younger top-nine forward while still rebuilding the back half of the defense corps?

3. Could the Avs afford to part with a top-end forward to specifically add one more impact defenseman, and is there enough depth up front to cover for that, at least until the trade deadline?

Moving Colton for cap flexibility kicked off the Sakic 2.0 regime and the 2026 offseason. It might not be the last big shakeup, either.

Future depth chart

^ Unrestricted free agent on July 1; * UFA in 2027; + Restricted free agent on July 1; # RFA in 2027

“As a player, you’re going to have stretches where you’re not on the scoresheet and where (Makar) could still be helping the team,” TNT analyst and former NHL center told me earlier this month. “And where Cale could still be having an impact.”

To put it another way: How much did you enjoy seeing Colorado, minus Makar, struggle to score three goals over Games 1 and 2 of the Western Conference Final?

Look, we get it. Yes, the Avs Yes, Makar is due for a contract extension as soon as July 1. Yes, that extension will probably be worth anywhere from $15-17 million per season — a healthy bump from the $9-million cap hit Makar commanded in ’25-26.

The Avs need cap space. They need draft picks. They need to get younger and fresher on the ice. They need more roster flexibility off it.

Let’s workshop this. No bad ideas.

Trade Makar!

OK, except for that one.

With an aging lineup and a shrinking Stanley Cup window, it’s definitely time to think outside the box.

Last week hurt. Vegas hurt. Be angry. Be vigilant. Just don’t be silly. Any executive shopping Makar should be exiled to

In NHL history, Makar had already done it twice by the age of 27. He won’t turn 30 until October 2028. Just get a load of the other names on the list to pull that off multiple times: Paul Coffey (seven times), Bobby Orr (six), Al MacInnis (three), Dennis Potvin (three) and Phil Housley (twice).

Trade Makar for draft picks!

Who let Jeff Bridich in here?

Depth matters in the postseason. A lot. The old adage that you go as far as your top two lines in the regular season and as far as your bottom two in the playoffs still holds up. Brock Nelson, Artturi Lehkonen, Nicolas Roy and Logan O’Connor, all of whom provided some juice against the Kings and Wild, combined for zero goals and one point against Vegas. One lousy point.

That said, anyone who tells you that a team can’t win a Stanley Cup with multiple players making $10 million or more isn’t your friend. For one, the salary cap is a moving target. For another, Florida won back-to-back titles with Aleksander Barkov and Sergei Bobrovsky on eight-figure cap hits.

Plus, two words: Mikko Rantanen.

But we won the trade!

Did you, though?

Martin Necas is one of the few forwards, granted, who can skate with Nathan MacKinnon at full tilt. No. 88 reads the game well. He also can spend so much time looking for the perfect pass that whole shifts pass him by.

The Marty Party produced one postseason goal in 2026. He’s put up two goals over 20 playoff games (with 16 helpers) for Colorado so far. He’s due to cost you $11.5 million in every cap year through 2033-34.

To general manager Chris MacFarland’s credit, he’s tried to avoid a roster that becomes too top-heavy, too Oilers South, with MacKinnon accounting for a $12.6-milion cap number and raises for Necas and Makar looming. But moving Cale just to stay in that neighborhood would be sheer Looney Tunes.

Even a shallow dive into the metrics makes Makar critics look all wet. No. 8 has strung together arguably his two least-impactful postseasons, back-to-back, in ’24-25 and ’25-26, largely due to injury. And yet, , he still logged 456 minutes and change in front of the Lumberyard tandem of Scott Wedgewood and Mackenzie Blackwood in goal. When No. 8 has been on the ice over the Avs’ last 20 playoff games, Colorado’s giving up 1.97 goals per 60 minutes in all strengths. With Makar on the bench, the Avs have allowed 2.92 goals per 60. That’s a difference of a goal per game in regulation — even before you factor in the offensive side of Makar’s arsenal.

Among NHL defensive tandems this postseason that have played at least 30 minutes together, the Makar-Devon Toews pairing still ranks fifth overall among playoff expected goals percentage (64%, with eight expected goals for and 4.5 goals expected against). That’s up from 13th a year ago (58.5%, 6.2 expected goals for and 4.4 against) and 14th in ’23-24 (58.3%, 6.3 expected goals for and 4.5 against).

“I guess the (heart) of the matter is, the numbers are what they are,” Olcyzk said of Makar. “His impact — they have such a deep team, they’re going to be able to get contributions in points from a lot of different guys. But he is always going to have an impact, and you always have to account for him, if you’re the other team. It’s just a matter of time before he gets on that heater and he has a four-or five-point game.”

There’s a fine blue line The Avalanche, however wounded, however shamed, however desperate, surely know better than to cross it.

Mikko Rantanen sent his friends and former teammates home in a blur — his third-period hat trick and assist to erase a 2-0 deficit happened in the final 13 minutes of a do-or-die Game 7. That painful night in Dallas now feels merciful, compared with what this Avs team just experienced. A four-game sweep by the Vegas Golden Knights was somehow worse. It was an internal injury diagnosed too late, triggering a week-long spiral of physical and mental anguish.

“I think it just feels like a waste, to be honest,” Avs forward Logan O’Connor said. “Eighty-two games, you get tons of great pieces and feel as though you have a team that can do something special. We said it in training camp — it’s Cup or bust for us. Regardless of where you fall short, we fell super short of that goal.”

For nine months, that loss in Dallas looked like a prologue, the catalyst for a historic start to this season and eventual legacy-cementing championship for Jared Bednar, Nathan MacKinnon, Cale Makar and the rest of the Avs who reached the mountaintop five years ago but have languished through a variety of playoff disappointments since.

The Avs won the most games, scored the most goals and allowed the fewest during a dominant regular season. They steamrolled through the first half of the tournament, losing just once while scoring more than four goals per game.

Then the Golden Knights broke them. It took a week — a blink of an eye in the context of a long season, but the adjectives to describe how players felt in the Avalanche locker room Tuesday night were strikingly similar to that night in Dallas.

“Frustration. Sadness, I guess,” Avs defenseman Josh Manson said. “Really felt like we had a good team. We didn’t do the job. We lost. The expectations for this organization are high. And, just … didn’t go the way we wanted.”

By Game 4 of this series, the only way to tell it was the Avs on the ice at T-Mobile Arena was the uniforms. Colorado looked nothing like the team that demoralized opponents all year with its offensive and defensive prowess.

Every aspect of the Avs’ invincibility was punctured by a team that fired its head coach 51 days before this Western Conference final began and lost more games than it won during the regular season.

Colorado scored just seven goals in four games for the first time since early in the 2023-24 season. Scott Wedgewood, the NHL’s leader in goals against average and save percentage, was outplayed by a goaltender who, this time a year ago, was one of five defendants in a messy sexual assault trial and who wasn’t signed to an NHL contract until late October.

This Avs team was 45-0 when leading after two periods, until Vegas made it 45-1 in Game 2. Colorado was 52-0 when building a multi-goal lead at any point in a game, until Vegas made it 52-1 in Game 3.

This was the deepest team in the NHL, built to survive the war of attrition in the Stanley Cup playoffs. It was one of the healthiest teams in the league as well, but by the end of this run, the Avs’ injury luck was nearly as bad as their shooting woes.

Everything was leading to one outcome for the Avs — a second championship in five years, another parade and immortality for all the key figures. A week later, everything has changed, and there’s just as much uncertainty — maybe more — than the morning after Rantanen donned a green-and-black cape in Game 7.

“I mean, this one … I feel like it¶¶Òõap going to take some time to kind of digest and process,” Avs forward Brock Nelson said. “I’m not worried about next year right now.”

A more complicated offseason

Colorado’s offseason looked pretty straightforward a week ago.

Brett Kulak and Brent Burns are unrestricted free agents. Jack Drury is a restricted free agent. The biggest potential storyline was Cale Makar’s massive new contract, but that one doesn’t start until the following season.

The Avs have very little cap space, so someone under contract will likely need to be traded to retain Drury and one of the defensemen, or to replace Kulak and Burns. Pretty simple stuff, relative to what other offseasons might look like.

Now? Everything has to be on the table.

The questions begin with the future of the coaching staff. Colorado fired one of Jared Bednar’s longtime lieutenants, Ray Bennett, last May after the power play failed in the Dallas series. The power play was still a problem for much of this season, the one source of consternation, even when all of the other parts of this club were at the peak of their powers.

If the Avalanche decide to let Bednar go, he would be fielding calls from other NHL teams before the end of the day. The one candidate who has a resume similar to Bednar’s who isn’t currently one of the 32 head coaches is the guy John Tortorella replaced in Sin City, Bruce Cassidy. But one of the biggest off-ice stories of this postseason has been the Golden Knights denying Edmonton and Los Angeles permission to speak with Cassidy because he’s still under contract with Vegas.

The next major question, with both short- and long-term ramifications, is the state of the roster. This team was built to win the Stanley Cup in 2026, and every core piece is under contract at least through next year.

That felt like a great thing 10 days ago. If this Avs team did go on to win the Stanley Cup, they’d be one of the top favorites for 2026-27 as well.

Now? The Avs looked old against the Golden Knights. Beyond Burns, who will be 41 when next season begins, Colorado has six key figures who will be 32 or older when the 2027 Stanley Cup Playoffs begin — Nazem Kadri, Brock Nelson and Manson will be 35 or older, while Gabe Landeskog, Wedgewood and Devon Toews will all be at least 32.

Then there are Valeri Nichushkin and Artturi Lehkonen. Having those two excellent two-way players on team-friendly contracts has been part of Colorado’s secret sauce since 2022. No other NHL team has two secondary stars like them when they are healthy and playing well.

Their style of play and injury history, not to mention Nichushkin’s off-ice troubles, have made them high-risk, high-reward players in recent seasons. Lehkonen was hurt in the second round and far off his typical impact against Vegas. Nichushkin couldn’t finish the conference final because of an injury, and this year was his worst per-game offensive output since the 2020-21 campaign.

Martin Necas is the youngest core player on the team, but his new contract at $11.5 million per season kicks in next year. He was great against Minnesota, but the external allegations that he isn’t a postseason player resurfaced after he was one of the least impactful players on the roster against Vegas.

The Avs chose not to move any core players after losing to Dallas last year. The rationale was that they shook up the roster so much in-season that some stability going into this year would help fuel another run.

For nine months, that plan looked perfect. Staying the course looks far more uncertain now.

“I certainly hope so,” Landeskog said when asked if this core has another run in it. “I believe in that.

“It’s hard, but I think at the end of the day, if there’s one thing I learned over the last handful of years, it’s get knocked down, you just get right back up. Yeah, that’s the only way to do it.”

The team that was leading the 2026 Stanley Cup Playoffs in goals per game after two rounds — a club that scored nine times in one game against a strong defensive team three weeks ago — managed just seven in the entire Western Conference Final.

Of all the reasons why the Colorado Avalanche are no longer participating in this tournament, that is the hardest one to fathom.

“I felt like we were generating enough to create chances, doing enough things to find the back of the net a couple times, and yeah, it just comes down to one chance,” Avs star defenseman Cale Makar said. “I felt like every game in this series was like that.”

The Avs scored 298 goals in the regular season, seven more than the Carolina Hurricanes at the top of the league. They had scored 37 in nine games through the first two rounds of the postseason.

Other things went wrong while the Vegas Golden Knights completed one of the most shocking sweeps in recent NHL postseason history. Vegas won the goaltending battle in the first three games. The Avs made mistakes at critical times, which gave the Golden Knights great scoring chances.

But the offense going Arctic Circle levels of cold is the most shocking issue. Colorado hadn’t been held to fewer than eight goals in any four-game stretch since Oct. 26-Nov. 4, 2023.

“I think it¶¶Òõap their checking game and I thought Carter Hart had an incredible series at times,” Avs coach Jared Bednar said. “Sometimes I think we did a good job. Like I said before, you’re looking at this series going into this final game, the analytics are tight, they’re close in all aspects.

“(Hart) played really well and I think their team made it super difficult to create quality looks and when we did he made the saves. That had all something to do with it.”

The Avs feeling like they were getting enough chances, but not converting them was a theme throughout the series. That was definitely true in Game 1.

Colorado finished that game with 38 shots on net. The Avs also generated 4.44 expected goals, the second-most during this postseason run, but lost 4-2.

The next three games, the Avs did not create enough chances, or generate enough expected goals. It may have felt like they did, and in relation to what Vegas was producing, it was as Bednar put it, very tight.

But, the Avs generated 6.69 expected goals in Games 2-4 combined. The individual totals were three of the four worst outputs in the 2026 playoffs for Colorado. That’s an average of 2.23 per contest.

The Avs had just six games in the regular season where they generated 2.23 expected goals or less.

Colorado shot the puck more than Vegas did in this series. The Avs even had more scoring chances, at least before Game 4. The Golden Knights had a 75-72 advantage in scoring chances over the final three games.

But getting into the dirty areas and creating the best scoring chances was a huge problem. The Avalanche generated six high-danger scoring chances in each of the final three games of this series. They had just two in the third periods of those games — both in Game 3.

“I think we were generating looks still, but we just couldn’t get them in the net,” Avs defenseman Devon Toews said. “That’s the way it goes at times. There are times in the regular season where you might go 10 games where’s it just really hard to score goals.

“We went four games here where we couldn’t quite get enough to push it over the line and push a couple of games into our column.”

The individual results from this series were as improbable as the result. Colorado had six players score 20 or more goals this season.

Nathan MacKinnon, Martin Necas, Brock Nelson, Cale Makar, Parker Kelly and Artturi Lehkonen combined for 186 goals this season. None of those six players scored a goal against the Golden Knights.

Nelson had two quality chances and set up a third during one shift in Game 4. He hit the crossbar with a chance that might have curtailed Vegas’ comeback plans in Game 3. He’s had great postseasons before with the New York Islanders.

He called this the most frustrating playoff experience of his career. He might not be alone in the Colorado locker room.

“I felt like in a couple of the games, we had our fair share of looks and they didn’t go in,” Nelson said. “Yeah, which obviously it¶¶Òõap all the more frustrating right now.

“I mean, this one … I feel like it¶¶Òõap going to take some time to kind of digest and process.”

A week later, the Avs are just going home.

The Vegas Golden Knights completed one of the more improbable sweeps in Stanley Cup Playoffs history Tuesday night, sending the Avalanche into the offseason with a 2-1 victory in Game 4 of the Western Conference Final at T-Mobile Arena. Colorado went from being the odds-on favorite to win the Stanley Cup to falling eight wins short of that goal in a span of seven days.

“Disappointed, humiliated,” Avs forward Logan O’Connor said. “I think to a man just weren’t good enough, not a single guy was the whole entire series.

“I think we let down coaches, each other, fans, management. It¶¶Òõap on us as players to be far better than we were. The results speak for itself. Just tons, lot of disappointment right now.”

This Avs team began this season with a historic 31-2-7 run. They had won 13 of their past 15 games entering this series, including an 8-1 romp through the first two rounds of this tournament.

And then, in a figurative blink of an eye, the months-long march to a second NHL championship in five years was over.

“It’s empty, always is whether you lose 7,6,5, or 4,” Avs captain Gabe Landeskog said. “I mean, it’s an empty feeling. Yeah, sucks. There’s no other way to put it.”

This Vegas Golden Knights team fired its coach with eight games to play in the regular season because it was in a dogfight just to make the playoffs.

Now, John Tortorella and the Golden Knights will play for a second title in four years. The 2023 champs handled the 2022 champs with a level of ease no one could have seen coming.

“Right now, it¶¶Òõap heartbreak, disappointment, frustration, a lot of different things,” Avs center Brock Nelson said. “I mean the group, I don’t think there was any quit in the group. We knew it wasn’t going to be easy. We ran into a good team, a good goalie. We weren’t able to get it done. It sucks.”

By Game 4, the Avs were clearly at a physical disadvantage. Star center Nathan MacKinnon was able to play in this game despite getting injured in Game 3. Valeri Nichushkin was not, after missing the final 22 minutes Saturday night.

A few other key players, including star defenseman Cale Makar, Artturi Lehkonen, and Sam Malinski, have all either missed games in this series or logged less ice time than usual, likely because they were playing through injuries that kept them out of games in the second round.

Last season ended in stunning fashion, with ex-Avalanche star Mikko Rantanen’s four-point third period in Game 7. Somehow, the Avs found a different, yet equally unfathomable way to lose.

The questions, both short- and long-term, about where the Avs go from here will be plentiful.

“I feel like this is probably the most frustrating one that I’ve been part of in the postseason,” Nelson said. “Just given, the year we had, the group, how much everyone put into it to give ourselves the best chance. To have it come to an end so abruptly, I don’t know … it doesn’t really feel real right now.”

Mark Stone gave Vegas an early lead in this one. The Golden Knights captain got behind the Colorado defense and Vegas defenseman Brayden McNabb flipped the puck over everyone to him. Stone caught the puck just before the Avs’ blue line, went in alone and scored his second goal in as many games after missing the first two contests of this series with an injury at 4:42 of the opening period.

It was the second shot Mackenzie Blackwood faced in his first appearance of this series. He made his first start of the conference final and third of this postseason run after Scott Wedgewood got the nod in the first three games.

Blackwood was outstanding for the Avalanche after allowing the early goal. He was a one-man show at one point during the second period as Vegas dominated play and pushed to extend the lead. Blackwood made two highlight-reel saves during a Vegas power play and stopped multiple mini-breakaways in the middle period as well.

“It¶¶Òõap freaking hard not to play for so long and come into a big game,” Blackwood said. “But you know I just said (expletive) it and go play the best I can and give them the best chance to win and just battle.”

Cole Smith made it a 2-0 advantage with 5:45 left in the game. The Avs struggled mightily to create chances for about 20 minutes before Smith directed a Dylan Coghlan shot past Blackwood.

Vegas built a 3-0 lead in Game 1 and held off a late Colorado rally. The Avs failed to hold a 1-0 third-period lead in Game 2 and then a 3-0 lead after 20 minutes in Game 3. Each loss was more shocking than the last.

Colorado was 45-0 this season when leading after two periods before Game 2. It was 52-0 when building a multi-goal lead before Game 3.

“Yeah, it happened fast,” O’Connor said. “I think we let Games 2 and 3 slip away from us. Super uncharacteristic from our group to give up the leads like that, especially in consecutive games. Drifted away from the game plan, they made us pay their opportunistic off our mistakes. Like I mentioned, I don’t think a single guy in this locker room played to the standards that we expect.

This Avs team once felt inevitable, but the past week shattered that.

MacKinnon sat in front of reporters after Game 7 a year ago and said, “I don’t know what we’re going to do.”

That was a familiar feeling Tuesday night in Sin City.

“Obviously, it (expletive) sucks no matter how you do it,” Blackwood said. “I think losing like that stings a little more. Yeah, that¶¶Òõap going to be pretty frustrating. We are going to have a tough pill to swallow.”

MacKinnon will play despite getting injured in Game 3. Valeri Nichushkin, who was also injured in a 5-3 loss Saturday night that put the Avs at the brink of elimination, remains a game-time decision.

“I think we’ll be able to use him (normally),” Bednar said. “He’s feeling a lot better today. We’ll see when he gets on the ice tonight and what the game brings, but he’s feeling pretty good today and feels like he’ll be ready to go.”

Mackenzie Blackwood is going to replace Scott Wedgewood in the net for Game 4. It will be his first start since being replaced by Wedgewood in the series-clinching Game 5 against Minnesota.

MacKinnon was injured in the second period of Game 3 when he blocked a Shea Theodore shot with the outside of his right knee. He writhed on the ice in pain for 9 seconds before the officials stopped play, and then for a bit longer before he was able to gingerly skate off the ice on his own power.

He missed the end of the second period and the start of the third while getting treatment, and was only able to take one 5-on-5 shift after returning from the locker room. MacKinnon still played 4:05 in the third period, but most of it was on the power play or with the goaltender pulled at the end of the game.

Nichushkin did not play the final 22 minutes of Game 3 and took only one short shift in the final 27 minutes. The Avalanche did not have Cale Makar for the first two games of this series because of an upper-body injury. Sam Malinski and Artturi Lehkonen both missed the final two games of the Minnesota series, and while they have played against Vegas, neither has been as impactful as before their injuries.

Blackwood has only started two games during this 2026 Stanley Cup Playoffs run. Wedgewood outplayed him near the end of the season, earned the Game 1 start against Los Angeles and then was fantastic against the Kings in a four-game sweep. Blackwood replaced Wedgewood during Game 3 of the second round and then started Games 4 and 5.

“I think Mackenzie’s the type of guy and goalie that plays better when he’s loose and confident and he’s been doing the work to make sure that he’s ready and prepared,” Bednar said. “It¶¶Òõap not a desperation move. It¶¶Òõap just … you’ve got to make a change and see if something else works for me. We felt confident in both these guys all year long. I felt like (Wedgewood) kind of earned the net in (Games) 1 and 2 and we gave him the shot in (Game) 3 and we didn’t get it done. It¶¶Òõap not on him, either. It¶¶Òõap on our team.

“We’re just looking for (Blackwood) to come in and play to the best of his ability and be loose and have fun. The whole team’s kind of in that mode right now, and I think if you can do that, you might see the best of him.”

The other half of the media corps that planned to go into the home dressing room was still waiting. Vegas’ postgame locker room access hadn’t even started yet.

It felt like a metaphor for everything that has happened in the past five days. Everything has gone wrong for the Avs so fast, and in such a stunning fashion. Everything about the situation, given what has transpired since mid-September, just felt so … surreal.

“You knew it was going to be a battle,” Avs coach Jared Bednar said. “To this point in the year at this start of the series, we’ve always been able to sort of make that next play, make one more play than the other team to try to carve out victories. To have it go the other way three games in a row … this is sports.

“It doesn’t shock me. It does surprise me a little bit that we haven’t been able to come up with it in the first three games. That¶¶Òõap the way it goes. Who knows? Maybe we’ll come up with it in the next three games.”

So here are the 2025-26 Avalanche. For more than six months, the Avs set the pace in the NHL. Then it unraveled in fewer than six days.

Now they are down 3-0 in the Western Conference Final to the surging Golden Knights. Four teams in NHL history have erased a 3-0 series deficit to win a series, including two in the past 50 years.

What has gone wrong? A lot of things, all at once. Some large, some small, but it all adds up to this surreal, stunning situation.

1. Scott Wedgewood has been one of the NHL’s great stories this year. The rise of The Lumberyard has delighted Avs fans.

There’s no way to sugarcoat it. Carter Hart has outplayed Wedgewood through the first three games of this series. Hart’s goals saved above expected has been better in all three games. For the series, Hart is plus-3.0, while Wedgewood is minus-1.66.

There can be some variance in that, especially with such a small sample. Other Avs issues are contributing to Wedgewood’s plight. But with all the chatter from both sides about how tight the series has been, how even the chances have been, and how opportunistic Vegas has been while Colorado has not, the easiest solution to that is for Colorado’s goaltending to be better.

For the playoffs, here are the goals saved above expected for each team still participating in this tournament, per MoneyPuck:

Montreal is at 11.3, Carolina is at 8.7, Vegas is at 7.2 and Colorado is at 0.1. Wedgewood (0.4) and Mackenzie Blackwood (-0.3) have just been … fine. If everything else was clicking for the Avs, the narrative would be that the Lumberyard has made just enough timely saves to make it work.

Everything else is not fine. One of the members of The Lumberyard needs to get hot. That’s the simplest way back into this series.

2. This is the only issue on the list that is partly out of the Avs’ control. They are a banged-up club now. The injuries might be too much. The Minnesota Wild players are not playing hockey right now and still have a what-if nagging at them about injuries. The Avs might feel that way soon, too.

The obvious ones are Nathan MacKinnon and Valeri Nichushkin, who were injured in Game 3. No updates on them from Bednar the day before Game 4. But Colorado’s injury issues likely go far beyond those two.

We know Cale Makar is playing through injury after he couldn’t dress in Games 1 and 2. Injury information is akin to classified state secrets during the playoffs, but the minutes played in a critical Game 3 told part of the story.

Sam Malinski, who the club desperately needed more from with Makar out, has struggled at times against Vegas after missing the end of the Minnesota series. He played 12:57 in Game 3. It’s difficult to imagine that number would be so low if he were healthy.

Artturi Lehkonen, a longtime playoff killer, has no points and just five shots on goal in this series. He missed the same two games that Malinski did. When MacKinnon and Nichushkin were both in various states of availability Sunday night, Lehkonen played less than Martin Necas, Brock Nelson, Gabe Landeskog, and Nazem Kadri. It’s hard to imagine that happening if he were healthy.

It’s possible that the Avs are just too hurt in this series. It’s not the only problem, but it’s a significant one.

3. Vegas is still doing what Dallas has done at times in the past couple of postseasons. A lot of the numbers under the hood are either fine or better for the Avalanche. A consistent theme is the Avs are not far off, just a play here, a goal or a save there. That’s true, which again points back to Hart making one more important save than Wedgewood, but also why the Avs might not be converting that one extra chance they need.

Colorado has produced 58.97% of the shot attempts in this series. The Avs have 59.54% of the scoring chances, per Natural Stat Trick. But not all chances are created equal. Vegas has produced 53.06% of the expected goals and 12 of the 18 actual goals. It’s 9 out of 15 if we exclude the three empty netters.

Vegas has still been able to keep Colorado to the outside, particularly in key parts of these games. The Avs had one high-danger scoring chance at 5-on-5 in the third period Sunday night. That was one more than the third period in Game 2.

The volume would translate, with one more good bounce or one less-than-stellar night from Hart. It hasn’t. Better quality on the chances created is another path to breathing life into a potential comeback.

The power play isn’t going to get its own spot on this list, but it can obviously be better as well.

4A. A week ago, Necas was fresh off a couple of great games against Minnesota and had 11 points in nine games — second most on the Avs. Three games later, he’s still second on the team in points, but the number next to that is now a far easier target for people who are searching for what’s gone wrong.

Necas had 38 goals in the regular season. He has one in the playoffs. If he were still racking up assists and making great plays happen like at the end of the Minnesota series, one goal wouldn’t be an issue. Jack Eichel has two goals in this postseason.

But three quiet offensive games, with just four shots on goal at 5-on-5 when the team is struggling to create offense, make Necas’ lack of goals an easy target.

“Yeah, I don’t honestly look at media at all,” Necas said. “So I don’t know what¶¶Òõap going on over there. Obviously, I want to be scoring more, more goals for sure for the team. It starts with tomorrow.”

4B. It’s a similar story for Nelson — 33 goals in the regular season, two in the playoffs. But he also has only one assist, not 11 like Necas. Nelson hit the crossbar on a great chance in Game 3, but that doesn’t count as a shot on goal and he’s only got one in the past two games combined.

Given the other guys who might not be available or are trying to play through injuries, the two guys who combined for 71 goals this year will need a big moment or three. That’s another way the Avs could find some footing in this series.

“I think even more frustrating, just given how the games kind of played out, too,” Nelson said of his lack of production. “Have to just continue to believe that you’re going to get more looks, capitalize on it, be a difference maker and turn it (around).

“I think it’s just having that belief individually for myself to step up, be more of an impact offensively. And I think as a group the belief that we were one of the best teams in league all year, we’re capable of coming back and obviously just starts with one game.”

Not again.

Right?

The Colorado Avalanche, the best team in hockey since opening night Oct. 7, are facing adversity for the first time this season after faceplanting in the first game of the Western Conference Final.

This moment will define the Avs, but not in the way you might think.

Colorado is not going to choke. These Avs cannot. They are too good, too deep. A third straight collapse from the first shift of sand under their feet is too hard to believe.

Don’t you think?

While the failures since the 2022 season were unnerving — a vanishing player, suspect coaching and an unplugged power play — another exit with parting gifts courtesy of the Golden Knights would be the worst.

Just thinking about it makes the state of Colorado collectively throw up a little bit in its mouth.

But know this: the Avs are not the Nuggets. They make trouble, not excuses. At least that is what we have all thought for the past eight months.

Now is the time to prove it. They can pull this off, though my prediction of the Avs winning in six games looks foolish after the opening night buzzkill.

This is not what you want to hear after a 4-2 loss to the Golden Knights at Ball Arena. Nobody likes to flash the Bat signal quite like Avs’ fans. What played out in front of a stunned sellout crowd caused distress and anger.

The Avs are too smart to play this dumb, to fall into this trap again. They were Yogi Bear and the Knights were the pic-a-nic baskets.

Colorado took the bait.

Anxiety overwhelmed patience, like Sam Malinski firing a shot at the end of a power play to beat an imaginary buzzer, leading to a breakaway. Brawn displaced brains as Ross Colton took a suspect penalty on a night when Cale Makar’s injury created miscommunication among multiple defenders.

We saw this movie against the Los Angeles Kings. It was boring, grueling, but ultimately rewarding.

The difference between the Kings and Golden Knights is that Las Vegas can, you know, score. The Kings played as Las Vegas did, but their endgame was to play keep-away, not to win the game.

The Golden Knights are not passengers. On Wednesday, they were more productive in space than the Artemis II astronauts.

They played better than the Avs. But they are not the better team.

Further evidence is needed, more than Dylan Coghlan beating a goalie for the first time since Gump Worsley, more than a terrific night by goalie Carter Hart to start rolling credits on the Avs’ historically great season.

You cannot convince me that a team with Nate MacKinnon now spewing venom and no longer suffering fools is going to go gentle into that good (Friday) night.

From one punch in the face? If that is the case, then everything we have heard from the Avs about their focus, belief and confidence is fraudulent.

This team is different, all involved insisted this week, because general manager Chris MacFarland did not try to fix the plane while it was in the air.

“This year, we were able to grow with our guys for quite some time. There were less additions at the deadline,” coach Jared Bednar said. “This year I feel like it’s been an easier process.”

It is why every player has celebrated nothing this postseason. There is only one goal acceptable for this core, this team.

“There is pressure. But you want that pressure,” center Nicolas Roy said. “Teams that don’t have that are either not playing or didn’t make the playoffs. You want this. You want to be in the last dance.”

This is, after all, a team with Nazem Kadri playing on the third line and Artturi Lehkonen healthy and Valeri Nichushkin percolating.

If a team like this cannot regain its balance after one bad performance, if a team like this cannot win without Makar — his status for Game 2 remains uncertain because of a right shoulder injury — then that’s pretty much all you need to know.

Drop this series, and the Avs will fold into history as a footnote, a great regular season team, the ultimate left-handed compliment for a team that could not overcome when everything did not go right.

Even with the poor execution, the metrics suggest the Avs should tilt the ice in their favor moving forward. Getting a few dirty goals on rebounds would help immensely. As would crisper, longer stick-to-stick passes.

Truth is, the Avs have no choice. They are another off night from the rink becoming the brink.

Visiting teams that capture the first two games win a playoff series 81% of the time, per the NHL database. Visiting teams that do it in the conference finals advance roughly 90% of the time.

There is no way the Avs lose Friday and overcome those odds. Las Vegas won’t allow it unless Donny Osmond takes up residency in the Golden Knights’ net. Vegas has won the opening game eight times in its last nine playoff series.

That is another reason not to panic. It wasn’t like this was totally unexpected.

“They won (the Cup) the year after us. They have a lot of guys who know what it takes. I can’t see this being a short series. It’s going to be tough,” MacKinnon said on the eve of the matchup. “We are ready for a seven gamer.”

That takes resilience, pride, grit. Things we saw in flashes, when necessary, against the Kings and Wild. Stuff that did not vanish because of a single loss.

Until proven otherwise, it was one bad game.

What is it that they say, that you never know how tall you are until you are a little over your head?

Friday night, it is time for the real Avs to stand up.

“I’m worried, to an extent,” Avalanche fan Jesse Klus confided as we’d huddled at the glass in front of Ball Arena’s Section 140, less than hour before Colorado got jumped by Vegas, 4-2, in Game 1 of the Western Conference Final. “But I have faith. We have a team where if one guy goes down, it’s the next-man-up mentality.”

The next men turned up. Kind of. But none of that adds up to squat if the Avs’ leading men take two-and-a-half periods to get their

“We just weren’t sharp,” Avalanche star Nathan MacKinnon reflected later. “Execution was poor from everybody. Yeah, just gotta be sharper than that.”

Especially when you’re already rolling onto the ice a legend short. In the Avalanche’s first postseason game without defenseman Cale Makar since 2023, Colorado’s other pillars were MIA until the final 5 minutes.

By the time vintage Nate Dogg joined the party, the Avs trailed 3-1 and burgundy and blue faithful were streaming into the aisles.

With 2:20 left, No. 29 spun his defender into a soft pretzel at the right post and fed a cutting Gabriel Landeskog to get the Avs to within a goal. Only a Vegas empty-netter dashed any dreams of a repeat of Minnesota Game 5, and welcome to life behind the 8-ball.

With no Cale, the Avs paled. They passed too much. They got passive. The shooting was lousy, the puck management was spotty, the back checks were inconsistent. The top two lines vanished, forcing coach Jared Bednar to mix and match on the fly.

The Golden Knights’ strategy was simple — get a one-goal lead and park the bus. So why the heck did Colorado oblige them? Over the middle 40 minutes of regulation, the Avs looked flatter than the top of the Grand Mesa. It was if Vegas knew the series started Wednesday and MacKinnon & Company were waiting ’til Friday’s Game 2 to turn the engine over.

“No. 1, you can’t baby the puck around the ice,” Bednar said. “The slower your pass goes to the open man, the quicker (the defense is) going to get out there. I felt like there were opportunities to make earlier, quicker decisions. zip the puck hard.”

The Golden Knights had better juice, better coaching, better goaltending, better special teams and a better plan. They also better utilized the dark arts of playoff hockey, winking their way into some friendly calls.

Somebody needs to give Vegas’ Rasmus Andersson an Oscar, by the way. Best Dive In a Conference Final.

With six minutes left in the second period, Rose Colton pushed Andersson out of the Vegas crease, and the Golden Knights defender went to the ice with, shall we say, more than a little drama.

A flop is a flop is a flop. It worked, getting Colton a roughing call and Vegas an extra man.

Which immediately paid off. The Golden Knights put a second goal on the board when Vegas winger Mitch Marner wrapped a pass behind his back to teammate Pavel Dorofeyev just before Logan O’Connor sent him into the boards. Dorofeyev lost Brent Burns in front of the Colorado net and Scott Wedgewood lost the puck, as a point-blank wrister pushed the Golden Knights’ lead to 2-0 and pushed Ball Arena’s collective blood pressure up about 30 points.

Midway through the third period, Vegas had two goals and an assist from its first and second lines. The Avs had goose eggs.

“(It’s) impossible to replace Makar, of course,” ESPN analyst Ray Ferraro warned me prior to the puck drop. “But if we’re talking one game, that’s survivable.

“I certainly think if (Makar is) out longer-term, or the bulk of this series, it would be a huge advantage, of course, for Vegas. This feels like a massive opportunity for Vegas (Wednesday).”

They took it. The Avs made Vegas goalie Carter Hart work for it in the second period, outshooting the visitors 6-1 in the first 6 minutes of the stanza. But if Hart wasn’t pulling a puck out of the air, a Golden Knight was beating Colorado attackers to loose biscuits in front of the crease, then sweeping them out of danger.

Avs D-man Sam Malinsky isn’t Makar, but who is? Without Cale, it was hard not to miss a presence that’s usually everywhere on the ice — defense, power play, penalty kill, the works.

But it was felt the most on Wednesday at the blue line in the offensive zone. When Vegas didn’t have a generational sniper to worry about, they could pack the slot and the crease the way NBA defenses could collapse on Nikola Jokic in the paint.

And nobody could beat Hart from distance, or even set up a friendly tip, over the first 40 minutes. O’Connor came the closest, but his wrister 5:11 into the contest doinked hard off the left post.

“NO MEANS NO!” Avs fans chanted at Hart, the nimble net-minder with the unsavory backstory.

“NO MEANS NO!”

“NO MEANS NO!”

“NO MEANS NO!”

Yet it was Hart, to the chagrin of a packed Ball and most of America, who controlled the crease and the grease from the jump. It felt a lot like the Kings series, only against bigger bodies, tighter checks and quicker sticks.

The Avs and Golden Knights both fired off 10 shots apiece in a scoreless opening stanza, as the hosts forced more Vegas giveaways (10) while the Fightin’ Torts racked up six blocked shots. At least two or three Vegas defenders seemed form a protective wall in front of Hart whenever the Avs sent the cavalry.

Before Wednesday night, the Avs had only played one postseason game since 2020 without Makar. That was in 2023, Game 5 of that ill-fated Seattle first-round series at Ball Arena, when the Colorado D-man was suspended for an interference penalty earlier in the series. The Kraken held on for a 3-2 win and would win the series in Denver four days later.

Nobody asked for a sequel. Jesse least of all.

Klus is 33. He’s been an Avs fan for 26 years, rooting from Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, some 971 miles north of Chopper Circle. Jesse flew in Wednesday morning, dropping $1200 in Canadian dollars on airfare and $700 for Wednesday’s ticket.

Daughter Braeleigh digs Cale even more than Jesse does. She even gave him a bracelet with “MAKAR” spelled in tiny beads last November in Vancouver, outside the Avs’ hotel.

‘I’ll trade you a bracelet for a jersey,” Makar told her. He pulled out a white No. 8 sweater, signed it and handed it over.

“(The Avs) kind of went up and down like waves,” Jesse said of Game 1. “When we had the momentum, we were all over it. Then it dropped off for a while, then back up.”

And your faith?

“Still heavy,” Klus said. “But the effort needs to come heavy like they did in the first period — hard, fast, ready to compete. Thirty-eight shots isn’t bad. But we could’ve had plenty more. And hope to goodness’ sake Cale comes back.”

Amen. Sometimes, it’s just not your Knight. But if you don’t get some juice from the big boys, and fast, it won’t be your series, either.

The Vegas Golden Knights got goals from a journeyman defenseman and the top two shooters in this postseason en route to an 4-2 victory Wednesday night at Ball Arena in Game 1 of the Western Conference Final. Carter Hart made 36 saves against the Cale Makar-less Avalanche.

“We just weren’t sharp,” Avs star Nathan MacKinnon said. “Execution was poor from everybody. Yeah, just gotta be sharper than that.”

Scott Wedgewood, who replaced Mackenzie Blackwood in an electric Game 5 comeback win to end the previous round, returned to the starting role for the Avs. He made 24 saves.

This is the first time in this postseason that Colorado is behind in a series. The Avalanche were atop the NHL standings every day from Nov. 1 until the end of the season, capturing the Central Division, Western Conference and Presidents’ Trophy as the top team in the league.

The Avs generated plenty of shots on goal, but also missed the net on some of their best opportunities, and Hart made some key saves while the Golden Knights built their lead.

There was hope for a second straight miracle comeback after Colorado scored twice in the third period, but Nic Dowd beat two Avs players in a race for the puck with the home side’s net empty and scored to end any doubt.

“I thought it was good at times and not good enough at others,” Avs coach Jared Bednar said. “I didn’t love our puck play tonight, like our execution coming out of our zone, through the neutral zone a little bit, even o-zone play. We gave them a handful of odd-man rushes that came off our turnovers and missed execution even if we were doing the right thing.

“I thought we had a lot of juice and energy in the third period to try and fight our way back into it, but we’re going to have to play a full 60 better than we did tonight, especially with the puck.”

Vegas defenseman Dylan Coghlan opened the scoring at 12:29 of the second period. Colorado’s second line had a couple of great looks, but the visitors counter-attacked at the end of a long shift. Valeri Nichushkin went to the bench and Brock Nelson fell down below the goal line, which allowed Vegas a 4-on-3 and the fourth guy in the zone — Coghlan — collected a pass from ex-Avs forward Brandon Saad and had all kinds of space to pick his spot on Scott Wedgewood.

The shot, which went through Wedgewood, fooled the Avalanche goaltender.

“I just read high glove,” Wedgewood said. “He got a lot of pace on it … just hard to close it once you’re spread. I don’t know if it was spinning on his stick, but he got a lot of pace on it. His release just wasn’t going there, so if it was (intended), it was a hell of a fake. Just read one thing and unfortunately wasn’t able to close up in time.”

It was Coghlan’s first career Stanley Cup Playoffs goal, and his first in the NHL since the 2021-22. Coghlan left Vegas after that season, played for Carolina and Winnipeg and came back to the Golden Knights as a free agent in the offseason.

With Ross Colton in the penalty box after Rasmus Andersson sold a roughing penalty in front of his own net, Vegas doubled its lead. Pavel Dorofeyev, one of the league’s best on the power play this season, snapped a shot past Wedgewood at 15:02 of the second. Mitch Marner — the leading point producer in this postseason — made a great play to fend off Logan O’Connor as he skated towards the right corner, and was able to get the puck back to the right circle for Dorofeyev, who scored his playoffs-leading 10th goal.

Dorofeyev now has 47 goals this year between the regular season and playoffs in 95 games, and 24 of them have come with Vegas on the power play.

When Colorado’s second opportunity with the extra man expired early in the third period, Vegas took advantage of a fortuitous bounce to extend its lead. It probably wasn’t a great decision for Sam Malinski to shoot from the top of the zone just as the penalty expired, but his shot was blocked into the neutral zone … and right to Ben Hutton as he came out of the box.

That led to a 2-on-1 for Vegas, and Brett Howden knocked the puck out of the air with his glove but also got his stick on it in the blue paint just before it cross the goal line to make it 3-0 for the visitors.

It was Howden’s ninth goal of this postseason, one behind Dorofeyev for the league lead. No one else has more seven in this tournament.

Nichushkin got the Avs on the board with 14:06 remaining in the third period. Two Vegas defenders collided with each other, leaving Nichushkin open near the front of the net. Nazem Kadri sent the puck to him, and Nichushkin was able to redirect the pass with his stick between his legs for his second goal of this postseason.

Avs captain Gabe Landeskog added Colorado’s second goal with 2:20 left in the third period. With the Avs on the power play and Wedgewood at the bench, MacKinnon undressed Vegas defenseman Brayden McNabb in the right corner with a quick cut, then went to the net and fed Landeskog for his fourth goal of this postseason.

After spending all season working from ahead, the Avs will need to find some answers ahead of a critical Game 2 on Friday night back here at Ball Arena.

“Just our personnel and what we’ve done all year,” Wedgewood said of why his team will be confident. “We bounce right back, clean up a few things and we’ll find ways to score. Honestly, I had no real issues with our game. It was just that they capitalized early and we had to fight back.”

FOOTNOTES: Makar missed the second Stanley Cup Playoffs game of his career, his first since he was suspended for Game 5 against Seattle in 2023. Malinski and Artturi Lehkonen returned to the lineup for the Avs after missing the final two games of the second-round series against the Wild. Mark Stone did not play for Vegas, the fourth straight game he’s missed.