In December 2023, Herman’s Osage Studios LLC bought a parcel of land at 1305 North Osage St. for $2.1 million. Herman, a designer, saw an opportunity to rehabilitate a couple of junk-car-storing warehouses into an interactive attraction at the northern tip of the abandoned Burnham Yard railyard. The dream for the site — bringing an immersive tiki lounge to Denver — was strong enough to shrug off a couple of purchase inquiries by legal representatives connected to the Denver Broncos, in the midst of a massive land grab just down the street. But actually designing such physical plans in a dilapidated area, Herman said, has been “an absolute horrorfest” of legal issues and property damage.

“There were days where I was like, ‘I’ve made a huge mistake,'” Herman said.

The Broncos have now become the most visible entrepreneur to identify Burnham Yard as a ripe pocket for redevelopment, continuing to march forward with the railyard as their preferred site for a new stadium district in Denver. Beyond a finalized agreement to buy the railyard itself, property records compiled by The Denver Post show the Broncos have been tied to at least $186 million in land purchases in the surrounding area, with the expressed goal to build out a mixed-use district around a new stadium. For now, unlike Herman and its neighbors, the organization does not need to concern itself with potential break-ins.

The Broncos’ path to a successful stadium-anchored development at Burnham, though, is fraught with larger-scale hurdles surrounding their planned stadium opening in 2031 — stemming directly from the same reasons they keyed in on the site in the first place.

“I’m so skeptical,” Herman said, “that they’re going to pull it off in time.”

A simple building remodel took Herman a year and a half due to city processes. People have broken into his warehouses on multiple occasions, and stripped the copper wire from his air-conditioning units. He has bled money on damage control. And on one occasion, he walked into his primary building at North Osage to find his window shattered and a man without any clothes standing in the middle of the room.

Herman has stuck it out, one of several owners who have poured money into new development around the railyard in recent years. Directly east of Burnham, The Refractory — — has seen interest from potential businesses ranging from a jiu jitsu gym to an indoor golf facility, broker Russell Gruber said. Directly adjacent to Herman’s property, Memphis Orion and Adam Lerner are leading a $27 million development of a wellness center dubbed Coba Bathhouse; they saw a “giant wave” in the area, Orion said , and felt they could surf it. And the Broncos are the latest to hop on, because of such tantalizing development potential.

The modern era of stadium construction has popularized the “stadium district,” a mini-neighborhood that relies on mixed-use offerings around the stadium itself to generate revenue outside of gamedays. The Broncos are buying up over 150 acres around Burnham to build out that concept in Denver, similar to Kroenke Sports & Entertainment’s plans at Ball Arena. But such a large-scale development in an area primarily zoned for industrial use has inevitably entangled the Broncos in a web of lengthy city processes, community-benefits-agreement negotiations with the recently established Burnham Yard Community Action coalition, and soon-to-be-costly negotiations with private landowners and the public utility, Denver Water, that have yet to be resolved.

And that’s just the first wave, as both the organization and the city will need an immaculately phased development at Burnham to justify the investment there.

“While our current focus is on the community-benefits-agreement process, the long-term goal is for Burnham Yard to contribute to a connected, mixed-use community to the La Alma Lincoln Park and Baker neighborhoods,” Broncos president Damani Leech told The Post. “In terms of selecting the Burnham Yard site, we think it’s important for the Broncos to remain in Denver.

“Though a project of this scope on a former railyard presents some challenges, it aligns with our overall vision to create Denver’s next great neighborhood, the future home of the Denver Broncos and a year-round destination that delivers meaningful impact for the city.”

Why the Broncos ‘have to make the mixed-use district work’

Twenty miles south, a 440-acre expanse of open dirt spills out below the intersection of East Lincoln Avenue and Interstate 25 in Lone Tree, the site that was — and could still be — the Broncos’ Plan B.

Over the last two years, the organization has done its due diligence on the Lone Tree City Center, a massive planned mixed-use sprawl that Douglas County has openly campaigned for as a possible home for the Broncos.

Lone Tree has already approved a sub-area plan for the Lone Tree City Center, and the area is zoned for large mixed-use development. The city “prides itself on being business-friendly,” Mayor Melissa Harmon told The Post, and aims to provide “clear expectations, timely feedback and response, and always a predictable permitting process.” And the alignment with the Broncos — or any other catalyst developer — is obvious: the city would make sure the integration was as smooth as possible, Harmon pointed.

“They have our phone number, and we know — I joked with Damani (Leech), I said, ‘You still say preferred, you know,'” Harmon said, referring to the Broncos’ current positioning at Burnham.

“But in all honesty, of course, we always knew that Denver and Burnham Yards was their preferred and No. 1 site for many reasons,” she continued, “and it was really such an honor to be able to have the conversations, but also really get national attention for this piece of property.”

To Harmon’s point, the Walton-Penner ownership group selected Burnham over Lone Tree or Aurora specifically to keep the franchise in Denver. And the specific location makes sense, as several real estate and development experts told The Post, because of the immediate proximity to higher-population-density neighborhoods around Denver that can therefore attract tenants and foot traffic alike.

“Obviously, like, the Broncos chose to be here instead of going to some suburban location,” said Ryan Meeks, founder of Denver-based Bosk Urban Design. “And so … they have to make the mixed-use district work, right?”

The appeal of building a stadium district at the Ìýlies in built-in historical and industrial aesthetics that the Broncos have highlighted since their very first Large Development Review pre-submission in November 2025. The organization has repeatedly cited theÌýrefurbishment of the site’s locomotive shop as a key component of its initial design plans. In that vein, the Broncos are the largest piece of a greater transformation around Burnham; a slew of developers have bought warehouses to repurpose for non-industrial uses in recent years, commercial broker Gruber told The Post.

“It¶¶Òõap a more challenging site, in some ways,” Broncos owner Greg Penner told The Post in September. “But we think it creates an opportunity to create something special.â€�

Those challenges, though, are substantial in the short term. Penner said in late March that the Broncos want to have “all of (their) ducks lined up” before officially shedding the preferred-site label for a Burnham development.

That calls for progress on a legally binding community-benefits agreement with the recently finalized Burnham Yard Community Action coalition, for one. That calls for progress on negotiations with Denver Water around the utility’s relocation, which has been further complicated by community pushback against the utility’s plans for a potential facility on Lot M of the existing Empower Field stadium site.

And that calls for progress toward a resolution with SRM Concrete, which owns a large concrete plant smack-dab in the middle of the Broncos’ stadium district plans.

Most important of all are the dominoes that’ll fall once the city’s Department of Community Planning and Development completes a small-area plan for the site, which a source with knowledge of the process said should be finalized late in 2026 or early in 2027.

The Denver Urban Renewal Authority will only begin work on an urban-renewal plan at Burnham once that small-area plan is finished, DURA Interim Executive Director Bill Pruter told The Post. That urban-renewal plan will determineÌýwhetherÌýtax-increment financing is approved for the Burnham development, which Pruter said he expects the Broncos will seek.

Penner and Denver’s brass have made clear the stadium itself won’t introduce any new taxes. But if the larger 150-acre site is approved for a TIF district by Denver’s City Council, the infrastructure around the stadium can be paid for in some capacity by borrowing against future growth in property taxes within that district — a form of tax break.

Essentially, the Broncos can wind up using the potential for a larger-scale stadium district at Burnham to actually pay for the stadium itself.

“This is incredibly typical in stadium ancillary development,” said Geoffrey Propheter, a . “You build the stadium first, and then all the non-stadium stuff that you’re actually using to try to convince lawmakers to support this — all of this comes in years 10, 20, 30. And they all come with a promise.â€�

“The track record for delivering on these promises by teams in development,” Propheter said later, “is shaky. And that¶¶Òõap being super generous.â€�

Why the phasing and selection of district features matter

Fortunately for Denver, the Walton-Penner Group has built a considerable track record of delivering on its promises.

Look to Denver, for one, where Broncos owners Penner and Carrie Walton Penner have revitalized the NFL franchise and just invested significant capital into the Colorado Rockies. And look across the country to Bentonville, Arkansas, where has been transformed into a mini-metropolis at the Walton family’s investment.

Nelson Worldwide senior vice president Lamar Wakefield, an expert in mixed-use development who helped design The Battery stadium district in Atlanta, told The Post that he’s working on a current development in Bentonville for the Waltons.

“They really want to see a wide range of housing options,” Wakefield said. “And I was really pleased to hear that. They understand that if you can make it attainable, but the whole neighborhood itself has all these wide ranges — maybe that single mom with three kids raising them in that environment is a little bit different … so they embrace that. I was very impressed.â€�

The Broncos will likely focus, in the initial phase, on the stadium and surrounding infrastructure before a 2031 opening at Burnham, multiple experts in stadium-district development told The Post. Slow-playing other aspects of the district for too long, though, would do a “huge disservice,” nearby warehouse owner John Victor said, to both community and city investment in the development. And the Broncos will face the challenge of establishing a center of gravity where there isn’t one at Burnham — different from KSE’s task of developing a district around the nearby Ball Arena.

“That’s the secret sauce there,” said Matt Mahoney, KSE’s senior vice president of development, “when we’re talking about neighborhoods that just do not exist. I mean, both these properties — our property is a surface parking lot. We’re fortunate to actually have an arena already built.

“The Broncos have a much tougher, steeper hill to climb. Because they want to create a neighborhood, but they also have to build a new stadium at the same time of establishing a sense of place there.â€�

The organization’s initial infrastructure master plan outlines that the Broncos would complete vertical construction of an “entertainment zone” in time for the stadium’s 2031 opening. The key there is what mix of mixed-use development (housing, office, retail, dining, hospitality) the Broncos will prioritize within that specific zone. Wakefield, who helped design The Battery Atlanta — a gold standard of mixed-use stadium development that the Broncos’ brass toured while identifying stadium-district ideas — emphasized the initial importance of establishing residential units to build an on-site customer base.

Any dreams about the district’s makeup, though, will be clouded by the current Denver market. Ortiz said building hotels would be an initial priority. But hotel-occupancy rates in metro Denver still haven’t rebounded to pre-COVID-19 levels, . RC Myles, a broker with Denver-based Pinnacle Real Estate Advisors, said he anticipates the Burnham district won’t prioritize much office development, as office vacancies in downtown Denver .

“There’s so many missing pieces to this,” said Carrie Makarewicz, chair of CU Denver’s urban and regional planning department. “I mean, they’re moving forward in the typical style of a private developer — you acquire low-cost land in a strategic location, you build the revenue generators first, you tap into as much public funding you can get … and then you work on the immediate surroundings for your project, but you don’t take into consideration the city and regional demand for retail, apartments and entertainment.

“Like, we’re cannibalizing all of our districts around the city.”

Demand for multi-family housing in downtown Denver has steadily ticked up, though, according to . And Myles pointed to Cherry Creek, which has dropped retail vacancy rates below 2%, as an example of a local destination for offices, families and businesses alike. Multiple real-estate experts noted to The Post that there aren’t currently many options for dining or support retail in the extended Burnham area — identifying a potential development focus for the Broncos.

“Colorado needs a big high five right now,” Gruber said. “And I think the Penners are helping do it.â€�

The Broncos, though, have yet to truly cement their investment in Burnham Yard, let alone a phased approach for an amorphous stadium district. And time is ticking, now a full nine months after their initial preferred-site announcement.

“If they can pull it off — I mean, dude, I guess money talks,” Herman said. “And they got plenty of that.”

“Yeah, we’re in talks with a couple of different groups. A project that big, we just got to make sure we do it right, because we don’t want to have to redo anything down the road. But they are fun conversations.”

That was Josh, on building new facilities.

In 2017.

“We have the land around the arena, and over at Elitch Gardens. We’re part of a master plan there to develop that out, and the first phase of that will include, most likely, an Avalanche and Nuggets facility. … But there’s a lot that goes into that. We’re working as fast as we can.”

That was also Josh, also on building new facilities.

In 2022.

So you’ll forgive the army of cynics up in the Grading The Week offices for chuckling and shaking their heads when Josh, when asked about one of the best franchises in hockey still practicing in a local rec center with a giant arcade on the ground floor, said this to the cameras:

“There’s one final hurdle that we’re in and we hope to have some information relatively soon. But again, we’re dealing with the city, and we’re working on pedestrian access over Speer, in and around that. I don’t have an exact time frame, but we’re very close.â€�

That was this past Thursday. Also Josh. Also on new facilities.

In 2026.

Josh Kroenke’s practice facility promises — C

The kindest thing we’ll say about KSE and some overdue buildings for the Avs and Nuggets to call home — or, heck, even one facility for the pair of them — is this:

We’ll believe it when we see it.

It never ceases to amaze the basketball guys and gals on the GTW crew who’ve worked in other markets how a franchise with one of the 10 best centers to ever play the game (Nikola Jokic) basically shoots, trains, and lifts weights in this teeny-tiny space just above floor level at Ball Arena. We’ve seen church basements with larger, dedicated basketball and CYO spaces and better facilities than the Nuggets’.

And yet the basketball side of Kroenke Sports & Entertainment, or KSE, is palatial compared to its NHL counterparts down the road.

The Avalanche have won three Stanley Cups since 1996. That’s tied for the second-most in the NHL (Detroit — boo, hiss — has four) over the last 30 years.

And yet the directions for getting to the Avs’ locker room at the South Suburban Family Sports Center sound like something lifted from the movie “This Is Spinal Tap:” Go past the climbing wall in the lobby, veer left at the arcade and go up the steps. Yet they’ve been there since 1998. It feels like 1998. Actually, the whole thing feels incredibly bush league.

Ex-Nuggets voices staying classy while being stiffed by KSE Ìý— A

We say this a lot in the GTW offices, but Scott Hastings is a better man than us. At least in front of a microphone.

“The young Scott Hastings probably would’ve thrown a fit, been upset, cussed people out, gone on the radio today and said, ‘You Em-effers,'” Hastings, the now-ex TV analyst for the Nuggets, said during his mid-day radio show on 92.5-FM earlier this week. “But it doesn’t do anybody (any) good. It’s not helpful.”

That said, we wouldn’t have blamed him for dropping a few expletives into the conversation. The Kroenkes did all their broadcast crews dirty, but especially those on the TV side, by squabbling with the even more stubborn jerks at Comcast in recent years. As a result, two of KSE’s best teams, the ’21-22 Avalanche and ’22-23 Nuggets, won championships in the NHL and NBA, respectively, while local broadcasts of their games were unavailable on many television sets in their home market.

Chris Marlowe deserved better. Hastings deserved better. So did Post alum Chris Dempsey, who, as anyone who’s met him will tell you, is an even better dude than he is a reporter and analyst. And that’s saying something.

Sakic was back in front of the assembled Colorado Avalanche media Thursday. MacFarland is gone, off to pilot his own franchise and what was old is new again in the Avs front office.

The message was similar, even if Sakic’s role has now changed. He sat next to Kroenke Sports & Entertainment vice-chairman Josh Kroenke this time, but belief in the Avalanche players and coaches was again a central theme.

“It’s disappointing. It stings,” said Sakic, now the president and general manager of the Avs with MacFarland in Nashville. “But we’ve got a great hockey team here, and this team was built for a 2-3 year run. We still got most of the guys coming back, and their expectations, our expectations, I know the fans’ expectations, is to try and win a (Stanley) Cup.

“And we’re hopefully going to accomplish that next year, but it really was, overall, an incredibly fun year.”

Colorado ran the league for more than six months, leading the NHL standings from Nov.Ìý 1 through the conclusion of the regular season. The Avs rolled past Los Angeles and Minnesota to reach the second half of the postseason tournament for the first time since 2022.

But the Avalanche express derailed at full speed, a stunning, fiery crash of a four-game sweep by the Vegas Golden Knights in the Western Conference Final. MacFarland is gone, but Sakic and Kroenke preached belief in the group and continuity throughout a nearly 30-minute press conference.

Sticking with Bednar

Not only will Jared Bednar return for an 11th season as head coach, but his assistants will also return. Bednar is entering the final year of his contract, but Sakic alluded to a potential extension coming later in the offseason.

“We haven’t thought about [that]. Right now, the priority is getting through the draft, free agency,” Sakic said. “Try and make our team as good as possible going into the summer. The rest of the stuff we will push that down the line. We’ll figure out later in the summer on all that stuff, but I don’t think he’s worried about it. He shouldn’t be worried about it. The contracts will come when they come.”

When asked why Bednar is returning, compared with title-winning coach Mike Malone, who was fired from the KSE-owned Denver Nuggets late in the 2024-25 season, Kroenke was succinct.

“I think he has absolute belief of the dressing room,” Kroenke said.

Sakic is now the GM of this franchise, and there is no acting or interim qualification. The structure from the past two seasons remains the same, just with MacFarland out and Sakic back in the GM chair.

While Sakic said he’s enjoyed the increased workload shifting back over the past couple of weeks, what his long-term future is and the front-office structure are still to be determined.

“I’m taking over being GM right now,” Sakic said. “We’ve got a great staff. Really confident in our group. It’s business as usual from our end. We’re going to try and, as a staff, make this team as good as possible so we can try and be a contender again.”

Colorado currently has 17 of its top 20 players from last season under contract for next year. No. 4 center Jack Drury is a restricted free agent. Two defensemen, Brett Kulak and Brent Burns, are unrestricted free agents.

The Avs do not have much room below the salary cap ceiling — a touch shy of $3 million, per PuckPedia — so just retaining those players is not an option. There is also work to be done filling out the depth beyond those 20 — extra forwards Joel Kiviranta (UFA) and Zakhar Bardakov (RFA) plus next-up defensemen Nick Blankenburg (UFA) and Jack Ahcan (UFA) all need new deals or replaced.

Sakic and Kroenke both spoke more about marginal changes than drastic ones.

“We could panic and try and blow everything up and start all over, but this team, what they’ve done over the course of the year was pretty remarkable,” Sakic said. “Now we want to give them an opportunity to try and do it again. I mean, the last two trade deadlines were meant for not just that year — to try and compete for a few years with this group and try and bring home a Stanley Cup. That’s the goal.”

Upgrades off the ice

This was the first time Kroenke spoke at an Avalanche-specific press conference since Nathan MacKinnon signed an eight-year, $100.82 million contract Sept. 20, 2022. Sakic addressed the next mega-contract Colorado expects to complete with co-franchise player Cale Makar this summer, and Kroenke had updates on a couple of other long-term franchise-building items.

One was progress on a new practice facility. The Avs currently practice at Family Sports Center in Centennial, where the team’s offices are also based. Both they and the Nuggets hope to have new spaces of their own downtown as part of KSE’s 55-acre development project around Ball Arena.

“There’s one final hurdle that we’re in,” Kroenke said. “We hope to have some information relatively soon. We’re dealing with the city, and we’re working on pedestrian access over Speer (Blvd.) in and around that. So hopefully once we are able to iron out and finalize that with the city, we’ll be able to announce something. I don’t have an exact time frame, but we’re very close.”

Another was the future of the Avalanche payroll. The NHL’s salary cap ceiling is in an era of unprecedented, rapid growth. The ceiling was $95.5 million this season, but will rise to $104 million for 2026-27 and is expected to spike to $113.5 million the following year with future, similar hikes also expected.

That has led to speculation in the NHL that far fewer franchises will be willing to spend up to or near the cap ceiling. Twelve teams, including the Avalanche, spent up to or within $1 million of the cap ceiling this year, and half the league — 16 clubs — spent more than $93 million, or within $2.5 million of the ceiling.

“I think we’ve been a cap team for how many years now?” Kroenke said. “I think with the core players that we have, we’re going to keep being as aggressive as possible. I think that some of that stuff can kind of go in cycles, but I think if you have a core of Nathan McKinnon and Cale Makar, led by Gabe Landeskog, and then the depth that we have. I think you better be pushing it, trying to go for Cups.

“I think going for Cups means you are spending as much as you can when you can, and using your resources as smartly as possible as well.”

Chris MacFarland left the organization Tuesday to join the division-rival Nashville Predators as president of hockey operations and general manager. He had been the Avs’ GM since 2022, when Joe Sakic was promoted to president of hockey operations and MacFarland was elevated from assistant GM.

MacFarland had been with the organization since 2015. That’s a key bit of information.

This franchise has not hired a GM with no ties to the organization since it arrived in Denver. Pierre Lacroix, hired by the Quebec Nordiques in 1994, was the last. Each of the club’s five GMs since Lacroix was either a current assistant GM or had been one recently.

The Avs said Sakic will re-assume GM duties through the upcoming draft and the start of the new NHL calendar year, according to a statement from KSE vice chairman Josh Kroenke. That means it could be a month or more before the Avs settle on a new GM.

Who are some potential candidates? Here are some very early names to watch:

Internal candidates

Joe Sakic, president of hockey operationsÌý

Fans who want Sakic to just be the GM again should not get their hopes up. Sakic was elevated in 2022 in part to keep MacFarland away from other teams who wanted to poach him at the time, but also because the franchise legend wanted to take a step back from the day-to-day grind of being an NHL GM. It’s hard to believe that Sakic will want to step back into that role full-time unless the plan is for him to mentor someone who would be placed in a GM-in-waiting role.

Andrew Cogliano, special assistant to the general manager

Cogliano is young, just two years removed from playing, and a rising star in NHL executive circles. A bet on him being an NHL GM someday is a good one, but is he ready now? A better question might be — is he going to stay in Denver, or will MacFarland bring him to Nashville and promote him to assistant GM with the Predators?

Kevin McDonald, assistant general manager

McDonald has only been with the Avs since 2022, but he’s been an NHL executive for more than three decades. He was an assistant GM in St. Louis when the Blues won the Stanley Cup in 2019. He’s got years of experience running his franchise’s AHL team, but has never had the chance to be an NHL GM.

Arik Parnass, director of analyticsÌý

Like Cogliano, he’s young and has never been an assistant GM. But Parnass has also been with the organization since 2016. Two of the GM hires in this cycle came from analytics-friendly backgrounds (Sunny Mehta in New Jersey, John Chayka in Toronto). The Avs are just about as analytics-friendly as any organization in the NHL.

External candidates

Brett Peterson, Florida Panthers assistant general manager

Peterson has been with Florida since 2020, and has helped build the Panthers into one of the NHL’s model franchises. Three straight Stanley Cup Final appearances, with two championships, before injuries derailed any chance of a three-peat this year. One potential issue: The Panthers already lost Mehta. Will they be OK with their front office being gutted, even if it’s for another promotion?

Tyler Dellow, Carolina Hurricanes, assistant general manager

Led by Eric Tulsky, who came from an analytics background, the Hurricanes are four wins from a Stanley Cup. Dellow has now worked for three NHL front offices — Edmonton, New Jersey and Carolina. He is one of the brightest minds in the sport and, like Tulsky, Mehta and Parnass, has carved a successful path in part because of his ability to blend old- and new-school hockey analysis.

Chris Clark, Columbus Blue Jackets, assistant general manager

Clark has been part of the Columbus front office since 2011, working his way up to director of player personnel, GM of the club’s AHL team, and, recently, assistant GM for the Blue Jackets. Does that resume sound familiar? Clark is a former player and NHL captain, so his path is a little different than MacFarland’s, but the Avs and Blue Jackets have been very familiar with each other for a long time now.

Rob Blake, former GM, Los Angeles KingsÌý

Blake would be closer to an internal candidate than the other names above, given his ties to the organization. He was the Kings’ GM from 2017-25. He oversaw the end of a championship era and a rebuild around the franchise’s star center and defenseman. On one hand, Blake’s team built the No. 1-ranked prospect pool while Anze Kopitar and Drew Doughty were still impact NHL players. On the other, the on-ice results fell far short of expectations.

A current NHL player agentÌý

This is the wild card spot. Bill Zito was a longtime agent before turning the Panthers into a powerhouse. Kent Hughes was a longtime agent before taking over the Montreal Canadiens and … they sure look like a burgeoning powerhouse after reaching the Eastern Conference Final this year with a roster loaded with young stars. The last time this franchise hired a longtime agent, Lacroix’s success with the Avs led to a plaque in the Hockey Hall of Fame.

He was positioned between the two benches as part of ESPN’s broadcast team while the Vegas Golden Knights stunningly swept the Presidents’ Trophy out of the 2026 Stanley Cup Playoffs in the Western Conference Final. It’s been a few days, but the shock of the result is still fresh.

For more than six months, the Avs set the standard in the NHL this season. Then, it was washed away in a week.

“In each of the first three games, there was a point in the game — like a significant moment — and Colorado lost all of those moments,” Ferraro told The Denver Post. “It¶¶Òõap not like they lost 5-1. They were in every game, but in those big moments that were available to turn each game, they lost every one.”

So now the offseason beckons, and it has suddenly become arguably the most important one of the Nathan MacKinnon-Cale Makar era. Everything was building over the past two years, from the historic in-season overhaul two seasons ago to the high-profile additions ahead of the March trade deadline, towards a championship run this spring.

For two rounds, the Avs looked like a juggernaut. Now, there are questions everywhere.

Will this group be able to win a second championship together? What can they possibly do now, after this dream season didn’t produce a title?

“When you’re in the air Colorado is, to nudge forward it¶¶Òõap a really high bar to climb over. Where they are, to improve some of the decisions are pretty minute,” Ferraro said. “You can change the system. You can change a coach. But if the top end of your roster gives you no goals, then you lose.

“To me it becomes simple, but the solutions probably aren’t simple. In my mind, it’s how would you improve a really good team? And it’s not easy.”

‘They’re not the chances you need’

As the series against the Golden Knights progressed, Colorado’s ability to create high-level chances diminished. The Avs had plenty in Game 1, but Vegas grabbed the lead and Carter Hart kept the league’s top offense at bay.

In Games 2 and 3, the Avs had more shot attempts, more shots on goals and, at least in their minds, enough quality scoring chances to win. By Game 4, the mounting injuries and frustration were too much to overcome.

After losing a series in 2025 where the Avs felt like they outplayed Dallas, is there a through line to be drawn?

“I don’t think they made the right adjustments,” said Bruce Boudreau, former coach and NHL Network analyst. “When you’re playing a team like Vegas or Carolina that clogs up the neutral zone and is very aggressive against you, you’ve got to change your tactics a little bit.

“They’re the best team in the league at coming up the ice with four guys. But when they don’t have the neutral zone ice to skate it in and make those plays, they need to figure something else out. … It¶¶Òõap not easy to check, because they have some great, skilled players, but the formula is easy to check, if that makes sense.”

Boudreau was at the helm of a dynamic, electric offensive team in Washington. Those Capitals teams, led by Alex Ovechkin and Nicklas Backstrom, were young and had not won a championship. They were inundated with questions about whether they could play the right way at the crucial time of year.

This Avalanche team has won. Jared Bednar’s plan worked, and this core executed it with near-flawless precision in 2022.

But each of the past four seasons has produced an ending more agonizing than the last. The questions that are usually reserved for teams and players who haven’t done it are now resurfacing for this Avs group.

“It is a good question. I don’t know if it is a major change,” said Cory Schneider, an analyst for NHL Network and MSG Network. “Maybe just a small philosophical change of not getting stubborn. It does seem like they can get frustrated, like you can frustrate them, you can frustrate some of their top guys if you don’t give them what they want. If the other team is saying we’ll give you A, but we won’t give you B, then if we can get some good goaltending, we can frustrate you.

“I don’t think it¶¶Òõap a major overhaul, but how can they find another way? It probably starts at the top with the top guys. It might be more of a mentality change than a big personnel change.”

Colorado’s top six scorers during the regular season did not score a goal against Vegas. The top guys didn’t score enough. The depth guys didn’t score enough.

“That reminds me of 2010,” Boudreau said of his Presidents’ Trophy-winning club in Washington. “We had 121 points, but then all of a sudden you run into some adversity and the power play doesn’t go, and I can see some similarities so quickly. It¶¶Òõap the frustration of … this never happened to us before, so what do we do?”

Vegas found a way to stifle the Avs, just as Dallas has done the two previous years. It was excellent defense. It was great goaltending, at times.

What are some potential solutions for when this problem arises again could be the key to unlocking another title, regardless of any personnel changes that might happen.

“What can be different? Until they get in between the circles for their chances, they’re not the chances that you need,” Ferraro said. “How do you generate more Grade A chances? I think they had probably as many as Vegas. They didn’t finish as well, and they did not, in my mind, between the circles as much as Vegas did.”

‘It¶¶Òõap going to be an interesting summer’

The first big domino is Bednar’s status.

The Avs pushed their end-of-season media availability to early next week. A year ago, it came three days after losing to Dallas in Game 7. The power play’s failure in that series cost assistant coach Ray Bennett his job.

Bednar is the winningest coach in franchise history. He’s the second-longest tenured coach in the NHL, behind Tampa Bay’s Jon Cooper. The Lightning have not won a single playoff round since Bednar’s Colorado team defeated them in the 2022 Cup Final, but there has been far less chatter about Cooper’s job security.

“I happen to think Bednar is really good,” Ferraro said. “He’s a really, really good coach that coaches a team that just had 121 points. If they’re letting him go, they better have a really good idea of who’s coming next.”

The other big domino is general manager Chris MacFarland. Multiple outlets have reported that Nashville wants to speak with MacFarland, who is nominated for GM of the Year. If he were to leave, that opens the door to an entirely new set of questions for this offseason.

If MacFarland stays, the biggest long-term item on the to-do list is Makar’s next contract. But, in the short term, what can or will the Avs do that will affect the 2026-27 edition of the team?

There are 17 players who appeared in at least three of the club’s 13 playoff games under contract for next season. Jack Drury is a restricted free agent. Defensemen Brett Kulak, Brent Burns, Nick Blankenburg and Jack Ahcan are all unrestricted free agents, along with forward Joel Kiviranta.

Colorado has a shade below $3 million in cap space, . That’s not enough to revamp the back half of the defense corps, not to mention a new deal for Drury and room for a 13th forward.

“I’m reading different opinions on “blow it upâ€� and I don’t think people quite understand A) the impossibility of that and B) would you look at a team that had 121 points, or would you look at seven days?” Ferraro said. “I can almost guarantee they’re not going to have eight new players next year. That¶¶Òõap not happening.”

At least one, if not two, of those 17 players under contract will need to be moved to create the cap flexibility to fill out the roster. The Avs were in a similar spot last summer. They traded Charlie Coyle and Miles Wood to Columbus.

That allowed them to sign Brent Burns, and it gave them enough breathing room below the cap ceiling to add Kulak, Nicolas Roy and Nazem Kadri before the trade deadline.

To do more than that will be its own challenge. The Avs are short on draft picks and prospects to use in trades, but there are also lots of teams with plenty of cap space who might want to add one of the Colorado veterans.

“I think it must be the most torturous and difficult task to sit there and go, ‘I think we should be patient. I don’t think we should make major moves,’ ” Ferraro said. “It must be really disappointing and really frustrating, because you’re close, and then you’re losing four games, so are you close? That’s what they’re wrestling with.”

When the season ends the way it did, it feels like everything and anything could be on the table. There were similar feelings a year ago, with a stunning Game 7 loss to Dallas still fresh in everyone’s minds.

MacFarland, along with team president Joe Sakic, preached patience then, and belief in this group. They were rewarded with the best regular season in franchise history, and an 8-1 romp through the first half of the playoffs.

But then the Western Conference Final happened. How the Avs respond will affect not only their chances of winning the Stanley Cup in 2027 but also years beyond that.

It’s an aging group. It’s also a group that just ran the league for six months. The forthcoming decisions are not going to be easy.

“It¶¶Òõap going to be an interesting summer, because they’ve shown they will be aggressive,” Schneider said. “They’re similar to Vegas in that sense, where they’re not afraid to make a change. There’s no sacred cows there. If anybody was willing to pull off a pretty bold move, I wouldn’t be surprised if it was them.”

That is what the NBA’s Western Conference Finals have become. The Thunder players excel as floppers, spending more time on the floor than Swiffer. They bait officials into calling fouls.

And it extends to defense for both the Thunder and Spurs.

They grab. They pull. They push. They know the refs won’t call fouls on everything, so they see what they can get away with every time.

Why bring this up? This is what the Nuggets face in their pursuit of a championship, and why their postseason failure represents a trend, unlike the Avs’ aberration.

Even after getting swept, the Avs could return to the Stanley Cup Final with a new coach and a plugged-in power play.

The Nuggets? They are in a galaxy far, far away from the NBA Star Wars between the Thunder and Spurs.

As I have said, taking a step back to move forward makes the most sense. There is no reason to run it back, other than to sell merch and continue the home sellout streak.

Rumors and proposals are starting to percolate, revealing the steep incline the Nuggets face to remain a championship contender.

ESPN reported this week that the . The latter requires a pause for laughter.

Braun has one of the league’s worst contracts — $21.6 million per season over the next five years — an extension I advocated for and watched become an immovable glacier because of an ankle injury.

Braun, 25, backslid in an alarming way, never regaining his footing after getting hurt and suffering setbacks. He averaged 12 points last season, shot a career-low 30.1 % from 3, and was passing up layups in the playoffs, while he was insisting he was the team’s leader even when he was nowhere near a shutdown defender.

Other than that.

The only path forward is to see if Braun can regain his shine with a productive offseason and improved health.

The Nuggets would be selling at an all-time low.Ìý And where would he go? Who would take him? Shedding the contract would involve connecting Braun to a deal involving Jamal Murray or Aaron Gordon. Same goes for Zeke Nnaji, obviously.

The easiest play is the cleanest. Trade Johnson, who has an expiring contract. He represents a functional piece for a contender and could bring back desperately needed draft capital. Then attempt to move Gordon to re-sign Peyton Watson.

The Nuggets will not be better next season, but they will be better positioned to regroup in 2029 for one last spending spree in the final years of Nikola Jokic’s contract.

Hard Labor: MLB owners proposed a salary cap in collective bargaining talks, showing the difficult road ahead. The owners want to fundamentally change the sport by tying a cap ($245.3 million) and a floor ($171.2 million) to competitive balance. In case you are wondering, the Rockies current payroll sits $54 million below the floor.

The MLBPA does not want to restrict players’ earning power and believes competitive balance can be tied to front-office competence, not spending limits, when looking at teams like Tampa Bay, Milwaukee, and Cleveland. Let’s be real, most owners are motivated more by franchise valuation than winning. A cap creates cost certainty. End of story. The difference is that the players are unlikely to have the public on their side in these talks because of payroll disparity–see the Dodgers. Baseball is on a heater, benefiting from pace of play changes and the ABS system, and does not have Cal Ripken’s consecutive-games-played streak or the fake muscled-fueled home run chase of Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa to save the game if another season is lost. Deadlines spur action. Next February will determine how serious the sides are at avoiding a lengthy lockout that costs games.

Final thought: Elimination games feature raw emotions. But Nathan MacKinnon not talking after Tuesday’s loss was unprofessional and inexcusable for one of the NHL’s best players.

“Looking at it from that perspective,” Tanner Roush sighed late Sunday night after Vegas 5, Colorado 3, “it’s been a pretty rough year to be a Denver fan.”

Welcome to 2026, the year when stars went on the shelf and seasons went off a cliff. Bo Nix’s ankle. Aaron Gordon’s calf. Cale Makar’s upper body. Nathan MacKinnon’s knee. Every time a Front Range team has looked about ready to lift a championship trophy, a key player suddenly couldn’t lift one of their arms. Or legs.

Boston’s a den of spoiled, entitled brats. Los Angeles is smogged with smug. What the heck did Denver faithful do to make the sports gods smite them so? And how do we reverse the curse? A goat? A chicken? Michael Lorenzen?

If one cruel injury is happenstance and twice is bad luck, what’s four times before July? A sign? A message? Cripes, isn’t having to look at the Rockies for seven months penance enough for one town?

“I think this one (hurts more),” Roush, an Avalanche fan from Parker, offered after his burgundy and blue suffered a brutal, historic and inexplicable come-from-ahead loss at Vegas in Game 3 of the Western Conference Final.

“The Bo Nix (injury) was really hard. I’m still worried about him coming back, obviously, with everything (I’ve read).

“But this (Avs-Vegas) series, like, I truly felt that we had this one in the bag. And I guess that’s over-confidence. That’s playoff hockey for you.”

Enjoy it while it lasts, kids. Colorado heads into Game 4 at T-Mobile Arena on Tuesday a loss away from elimination from the Stanley Cup Playoffs — an unthinkable, stunning collapse for a roster that had breezed to an 8-1 record over the first two rounds of the postseason against the Los Angeles Kings (4-0 series win) and Minnesota Wild (4-1).

“So yeah. This one hurts,” Roush continued. “Obviously, they all do.”

Thanksgiving 2025: How will we ever find enough PTO to attend three title rallies at Civic Center Park?

Memorial Day 2026: Where will we ever find enough couches for a city’s collective sports therapy?

Sunday evening might’ve been the cruelest of all, if only because it baited us with hope. In the first period, the Avs looked like the Avs again, attacking the Strip with the speed, swagger and savagery of a starving polar bear. Makar’s very presence seemed to give the visitors a kick up their collective backsides.

Yet, just as with Games 1 and 2, after the Golden Knights scored once, the Avs started to fold like a house of casino cards. Watching MacKinnon take a puck to the right knee late in the second stanza portended the wrong kind of juju. Did Jared Bednar during the first intermission?

“I was like, ‘God (expletive) it,'” Roush said. “We looked so good in the first (period) and literally just switched off. I don’t know what (happened). I still don’t know. And then Nate (going down) was the cherry on top.”

Nobody cares what you do to wise-cracking sports columnists, sports gods. But why are you doing this to Tanner? Dude’s an Avs lifer, . That was just before Game 5 of the Minnesota Wild series —Ìý a victory that feels as if it happened two years ago, not barely two weeks prior.

“When (Makar) came here in 2019, my dad was like, ‘holy (expletive), you look like him,'” Tanner recalled. “And it was kind of the inside family joke.”

No joke: Tanner can skate. Pretty well, in fact. He’s 29 now and grew up playing in hockey leagues around the south ‘burbs. Until his graduation from Legend High, Roush was primarily a center or a winger during his salad days. While fast, he wasn’t exactly the best blue line puck-mover of his generation.

“My stick skills weren’t nearly as good as (Makar’s),” Roush chuckled. “If I get handed the puck and try to rip a shot, they would be like, ‘Yeah, we’re playing with the imposter (Cale).'”

When his wife Lexi was coaching lacrosse a few years ago, one her kids looked at Tanner and said, “Oh, my gosh, it’s Cale Makar.”

“And every time he would come to games or practices after that, they’d be like, ‘Heyyyyyy, Caaaaaale,'” Lexi recounted.

“Do you remind your wife how cool it is to be married to Makar, though?” I asked.

“Oh yeah,” Tanner replied. “Many, many times. And then she says, ‘Where’s the money at?’

For winning the contest, Tanner scored two tickets to Game 5 against Minnesota, landing great seats to one of the greatest comebacks in Avs history. Again, that feels like a very, very, very long time ago now.

Roush’s day job is as a marketing specialist with the Heritage Title Company. If All Hail Cale ever needs somebody to double for him as a stunt man or on a commercial shoot, Roush says he’s happy to oblige. He even offered his services to Makar via Instagram.

“He ever get back?” I asked.

“No reply. Still waiting for it,” Tanner cracked. “He’s got time. I’ll give him as much time as he needs.”

Right now, he might need a hug. The sports gods are laughing at us. No team with the best regular-season record in the NHL has won a Stanley Cup since Chicago in 2013.

“You believe in the Presidents’ Trophy Curse?” I wondered.

“Man, I really don’t want to answer that,” Roush replied. “That should tell you everything about it. I don’t want to speak it into existence. But yeah, that answers itself.”

Pretty rough year to be a Denver fan, my friend. The Avs have never rallied to win a seven-game playoff series in which they trailed 0-3. Still, Tanner continues to keep the faith.

“It’s not over ’til it’s over. I’m a Bo-liever, for sure,” Roush said. “And I’m a big fan of Jaylen Waddle, too.”

At this rate, Mr. Waddle may want to take out a little extra insurance before training camp, just to be on the safe side. In December, we were lining up engravers. In June, we’ll be lining up tee times, waiting on a next year that was supposed to be this one.

Then a three-goal lead disappeared as quickly as it was created, another superstar was injured, and this once-dream season is officially on the brink.

The Vegas Golden Knights rallied after yielding the first three goals of this game, with Tomas Hertl providing the game-winner in a 5-3 victory in Game 3 of this best-of-seven series at T-Mobile Arena.

“It’s frustrating,” said Avs star Cale Makar, who returned after missing the first two games of this series. “I mean, we’ve been on the other side of that, obviously coming back from that, and it’s going to happen. But it can’t happen at this time of the year. I felt like they got some lucky bounces, but we’ve got to find a little bit better way to kind of challenge ourselves in those moments and come out of that.

“Just unfortunate. We still had a chance, obviously, in the third there.”

Vegas leads the series 3-0. The Golden Knights can complete an absolutely stunning sweep of the Presidents’ Trophy winners on their home ice on Tuesday night.

To make matters worse, Avs superstar Nathan MacKinnon was injured blocking a shot during the second period. He tried to play through it after taking a hard shot from Shea Theodore off the outside of his right knee, but his mobility was clearly limited.

MacKinnon took one normal shift in the third period, then went on the ice for Colorado’s power play. His three even-strength shifts after the injury totaled a combined 88 seconds, and the Avs were without the NHL’s leading goal scorer this season while trying to come back until MacKinnon went out again for a 6-on-5 shift.

That shift ended with Brett Howden’s empty-net goal to seal the Vegas victory. MacKinnon still managed to play 4:05 in the third period, but that’s maybe 40 percent of what he’d play when healthy in this situation.

Avs coach Jared Bednar also noted that Valeri Nichushkin was injured in the third period. Nichuhskin did not play in the final 22 minutes of this contest.

“Well, it¶¶Òõap low,” Bednar said when asked about the emotions of his team after a loss like that. “As low as it can get, because it¶¶Òõap a big hill to climb. The next 24-to-36 hours is for … you’ve got to find a way to get over it, regroup and go again.”

A tale of two periods

The first period couldn’t have gone much better for the visitors. The second period couldn’t have gone much worse.

Colorado blew a three-goal lead in less than 13 minutes. Vegas scored three times in the period on just eight shots.

“Everything,” Bednar said when asked what fell apart after the first. “Yeah, the first 9 minutes (of the second) kind of looked like portions of Game 1 for me and parts of Game 2 where we mismanaged the puck on breakouts. Then they just got more competitive and we didn’t stay with that intensity for nine minutes. A little bit of communication, some talk and we just didn’t dig in and match their intensity at the start of the second quick enough.”

The Golden Knights began the middle period on the power play. It took them 19 seconds to convert. Vegas captain Mark Stone, who returned after missing the past five games with an injury, tapped home a pass from Mitch Marner near the right post after a perfectly executed dump-in and retrieval.

William Karlsson made it a 3-2 game at 4:05 of the period. Marner shot the puck from the right point. Scott Wedgewood made the first save, but the rebound bounced off Parker Kelly’s stick and right to Karlsson, who whipped a shot inside the near post before the Avs goaltender could get square to him.

It was the first goal of the postseason for Karlsson, who is one of the original Vegas ‘Misfits’ from the inaugural season, but missed a huge chunk of this year before returning during the last round.

MacKinnon took a hard shot off the outside of his right knee with 7:54 remaining in the period. He was writhing on the ice for 9 seconds before play was stopped.

Keegan Kolesar tied the game at 3-3 on the next shift. Kolesar deflected a shot from the top of the zone by Dylan Coghlan off the right post and then tapped the rebound into the net for his first goal of this postseason.

“To me it¶¶Òõap the full 60(-minute) effort, competitiveness at times, puck moving and some turnovers that can get you,” Bednar said. “They’re going to make it difficult on you, but you have to try create enough chances and finish off enough to win a hockey game.”

Colorado’s offense roared to life at the start of this contest after two rough nights back home at Ball Arena.

Landeskog put the Avs in front just 3:21 into this contest. Devon Toews beat Noah Hanifin to a loose puck in the neutral zone, which created a 2-on-1. Hanifin took a penalty trying to defend Toews as he took the puck to the net, but Landeskog was there to put home the rebound.

That is five goals for Landeskog in the 2026 Stanley Cup Playoffs, just another chapter in his remarkable comeback story.

That was also Colorado’s first lead of the series. Nazem Kadri, moved up to the second line and to the wing for the first time in this postseason, doubled the advantage at 7:03 with one of the best team-effort goals of the season.

Josh Manson faked out Nic Dowd behind the Colorado net to free up space for the defenseman to hit Martin Necas with a tape-to-tape outlet pass beyond the red line. Necas split two defenders, then left the puck for Kadri, who buried a shot from the inside of the left circle for his third of the postseason.

Vegas thought it cut the lead in half during a Golden Knights power play. Pavel Dorofeyev batted the puck out of mid-air with a cross-checking motion near the edge of the Colorado crease. An official immediately waived off the goal, citing that Dorofeyev put the puck into the net with his hand.

After a lengthy review, the officials said the call on the ice was correct. Even if they had reversed it and awarded the goal, Colorado may have challenged for a high stick.

Either way, the Avs extended their lead to 3-0 just 43 seconds later. Parker Kelly backhanded the puck out of the Avs zone and two Vegas players missed it when trying to keep it in, leaving Jack Drury alone for a shorthanded breakaway. His deke fooled Vegas goaltender Carter Hart, and the Avs had a three-goal lead with 6:45 remaining in the opening period.

That lead was gone a little less than 20 minutes later. The season will end Tuesday night if the Avs can’t find a way to extend this series and get back to Ball Arena for a potential Game 5.

“You can go so many different ways, but we need to play better,” Landeskog said. “Simple as that. We need better, and we need to find a way to score more goals, and I thought we did a good job of that tonight. Obviously, build a lead, and then they claw their way into it. They’re a good team over there.”

Makar will return for Game 3 of the Western Conference Final against the Vegas Golden Knights after missing the first two contests in this series with an upper-body injury.

The two-time Norris Trophy winner was on the ice for warmups and took line rushes with normal partner Devon Toews. They are slated to be in the starting as well. Makar has missed the first two games of the series while Vegas built a 2-0 lead with back-to-back wins at Ball Arena.

When Jared Bednar was asked about the superstar defenseman ahead of this contest Sunday morning at T-Mobile Arena, the Colorado Avalanche coach did not bite.

“You’ll have to wait and see,” Bednar said.

Makar missed seven games near the end of the regular season with an injury, but returned for Games 81 and 82, and had a strong opening-round series against the Los Angeles Kings. He missed the final 17 minutes of the first period in Game 1 against Minnesota after an awkward collision with Marcus Foligno, but returned for the rest of that contest.

He also missed a little more than five minutes of the third period in the clinching Game 5 against the Wild when he cut a shift short and was favoring his shoulder as he went down the tunnel towards the locker room. Makar returned for five shifts between the end of regulation and overtime, but two of them were shorter than his typical workload.

The Avs have scored just three goals in the first two games without Makar, and one was at 6-on-4 with the goalie pulled. Makar has four goals and an assist in nine playoff games. His expected goals for percentage (xGF%) at 5-on-5 is the highest among the Avs’ regulars at 61.71%.

Sam Malinski — of course it was Malinski, the replacement for an injured Cale Makar on Colorado’s top defensive pairing — eyed a loose puck in the offensive zone. He could have charged the right circle, could have made an aggressive play on the puck. For barely an instant, he appeared to have the advantage in a potential footrace to it.

He skidded to a stop instead, then wheeled around, trying not to lose a step the other direction.

“It looks like we’re gonna get to it,” Avalanche coach Jared Bednar said later. “We don’t get to it. They get to it. And that’s how the rush starts to develop.”

Ivan Barbashev carried the puck out of his defensive zone, and seven seconds later, it was in Colorado’s net. For the first time in the Stanley Cup Playoffs, the Avs’ mortality was staring them in the face. Two minutes later, their dream season was on life support.

With two goals in 127 seconds, the Vegas Golden Knights upended the Western Conference Final and left Ball Arena in stunned silence Friday night. The first one leveled the score with 10:45 remaining in the third period of Game 2. The second gave Vegas a 2-1 edge and eventually a 2-0 series lead.

“We felt really good about our game,” captain Gabriel Landeskog said, “and then a short little lapse for two minutes, and they scored two goals.â€�

Bednar didn’t feel like his team played poorly in a second consecutive home loss. But the hardly perceivable details, the miniscule mistakes piled up to cost Colorado a game that meant everything. There were the opportunities to score an insurance goal before Vegas broke through, the two power plays with a 1-0 lead. And then there were the moments that sparked both Golden Knights goals.

Malinski’s brief hesitation resulted in a 3-on-2 rush for Vegas, with the young defenseman skating for his life to take away an angle from Barbashev. The Avs were scrambling to get back and cover every threat. The puck drifted across to Jack Eichel, who snapped a shot off the far post and into the net before Devon Toews could close in on him — a shot that Knights goalie Carter Hart “saw him working on this morning.”

“Two net drivers (were on the rush),” Avalanche goalie Scott Wedgewood said. “Read that first. (Eichel) kind of stalled. … Just over the pad and the arm, post and in. Perfect shot, but not a perfect goal. Back (side) pressure and feeling that maybe kept me a little bit too much (on the) strong side, and he toe-dragged it. One you want back.”

“We get back in time,” Bednar lamented, “but we don’t close it out.”

The Avs couldn’t manufacture any momentum in the offensive zone as they tried to pull themselves together. So often this season, a lead was definitive. All of a sudden, a tie meant doubt.

“Definitely think it stung,” winger Logan O’Connor said. “Try and be a mature group about it. Try and get right back to our game-plan. I think after the first one, we didn’t do that quick enough. And then the second one happens. And that’s on us to make a better adjustment there and sort of forget about what has happened and move past it. That’s something we can learn from.”

Much like how the first goal stemmed from Colorado’s failure to maintain the zone, the second arose from a botched opportunity to enter it. Valeri Nichushkin was past center-ice when the puck was poked away from him from behind, handing Vegas possession — a moment of weakness for a power forward whose every move is made with conviction, usually.

Then in the defensive zone, Avalanche teammates Toews and Brock Nelson got tangled up along the boards as Toews tried to clear the puck. The attempt was blocked. It took a deflection toward the middle of the ice, where Eichel passed to Barbashev for a one-timer. Both goals rang the post on their way in.

“Some of it is doing the right thing but not hard enough. Some of it is, there’s decisions there, too. Like, Val easily had time to put that puck in,” Bednar said. “And I don’t want to just single out Val, but that was a goal, right? And then we have it back a couple more times — we don’t get it out (of our zone). So we don’t get it in. We don’t get it out.”

“I think our puck decisions lacked some maturity at times,” O’Connor said. “And therefore we deviated from the game plan that had given us some success throughout the game.”

Whatever it was that abandoned the Avs — maturity, decisiveness, discipline — the price to pay was a season on the brink. After 127 seconds of whiplash, they have a two hours of flight time to Vegas to regain their bearings.

It wasn’t enough to play a good game on home ice. Every Avalanche error was sufficiently punished in Game 2.

“It¶¶Òõap a fine margin for error, the difference of winning and losing,” Bednar said. “There’s obviously things in the game, especially when you gave up two in the third period, that you don’t like.”