The Avalanche acquired the veteran in a trade with Toronto sending a conditional fifth-round draft pick in 2026 and a conditional first-round selection in 2027 to the Maple Leafs in exchange for Roy. It was a welcome move for Roy, who has fortified Colorado’s third line in conjunction with captain Gabriel Landeskog and Nazem Kadri, who was acquired by deadline trade the day after Roy.

“You go from definitely not making the playoffs to obviously the first team in the league and a team that’s pulling out every stop to win the Cup this year, so I’m really happy with how it turned out,” Roy said. “As a hockey player, that’s exactly what you want … Since I’ve gotten here, my goal has been to contribute in different ways, and I was able to do that in the first round (of the playoffs). Hopefully, I can do that again in the second round.”

In the Avs’ sweep of the Kings in the opening round, head coach Jared Bednar called Roy’s play “amazing.” Roy tallied points in three of the four games, including the OT winner in Game 2, an assist in Game 3 and another goal in Game 4. Roy’s plus/minus for the series was plus-five in an average of 12.87 minutes of ice time per game.

Those contributions came as a winger on the third line, a position that Roy played some previously when he was with Vegas from 2019 to 2025. A natural center, Roy’s versatility is part of what made the 29-year-old attractive to Colorado in the trade market. The deal to bring back Kadri, who was a key piece of the Avs’ 2022 title run, affirmed the fact that Roy would play winger while Kadri would be the center on Colorado’s new-look third line.

For most of the season, that third line was winger Victor Olofsson, center Jack Drury and winger Parker Kelly. Olofsson was dealt to the Flames as part of the Kadri trade, while Drury and Kelly are now part of Colorado’s fourth line along with Logan O’Connor, who missed most of the regular season due to injury.

Adding firepower for a Stanley Cup run

Bednar said the experience of Landeskog, Kadri and Roy was a key factor in Colorado’s sweep of Los Angeles, but the coach left the door open for a possible line shuffle heading into the second round against

“We’ll see who we are playing, and we’ll pick our lines based on (matchup),” Bednar said. “(Roy) is a responsible, defensive player, and that type of offense and the way he created it (against the Kings) can be repeated against any opponent. That was a favorable matchup for us — we had three veteran guys, all that have won a Stanley Cup, playing against a younger third line. They won that matchup, and that’s a big reason why we won that series.”

Roy was part of the Golden Knights’ Stanley Cup team in 2023, when he registered 11 points (three goals, eight assists) in 22 playoff games. He said he’s leaning on that experience in these playoffs as he continues to develop chemistry with Kadri. Both of those players aren’t just rentals for this season’s Stanley Cup run — Roy is under contract while Kadri is under contract

“I love the versatility of (Roy) taking faceoffs on the right side, and we can mix in a few extra plays in that regard,” Kadri said. “He protects the puck really well down low, he’s a great forechecker, he’s got some good vision too. And obviously he’s a big body around the net and he creates some havoc and chaos down there. It’s been fun to play with him and I think there’s already some chemistry there.”

Defenseman Cale Makar says Roy’s play since making his Colorado debut on March 6 has helped the third line bring “a consistent presence” on both ends of the ice. In 15 regular-season games with the Avs, Roy — a fourth-round pick by Carolina in 2015 who is of no relation to former Avs goalie Patrick Roy — had five points (three goals, two assists).

“(Roy and Kadri) find areas to get the puck to the net, which is great, and they read off each other really well,” Makar said. “It seems like they think about the game similarly.”

The Roy and Kadri trades were aimed at increasing Colorado’s depth and firepower on its latter lines, and thus taking some production pressure off the top line of Nathan MacKinnon, Martin Necas and Artturi Lehkonen.

Necas, who played with Roy in 2019 on the AHL’s Charlotte Checkers team that won the Calder Cup, said that goal has already been achieved.

“He’s still really good with the puck, just like he was (when we played together in Charlotte), and he’s a really good two-way player,” Necas said of Roy. “We’ve got more depth now, and you need that in the playoffs … When the top line isn’t clicking, we need other lines like the third one to contribute, and that’s what we did in the first round. We have to keep that going and (Roy) is a huge part of that.”

With 2:21 to go in the second period Sunday at Crypto.com Arena, Nathan MacKinnon’s sweetest shot of No Kings Day in Los Angeles — a 5-1 Avalanche rout — led with a shoulder instead of a stick.

As the Avalanche defended a 2-1 lead, the leading scorer in the NHL took a series worth of low blows, high blows, late blows, early blows, fast blows and slow blows out on Kings defenseman Brian Dumoulin.

When Dumoulin entered the offensive zone with the puck, Nate Dogg got his bite back. The fastest forward on the ice and leading scorer in the NHL picked up speed as he prepped to meet the Los Angeles defender at the blue line.

In an afternoon of little statement moments for the Avs, that one spoke volumes. Ride his back. Chop at his legs. Jab at his ribs. Poke at his face. Just know this, if you’re a Dallas or Minnesota defender: No. 29’s taking names. And keeping receipts.

“I think it’s a hungry group, inspired group,” captain Gabriel Landeskog opined to TNT after the sweep. “We just know what we want to do.”

Cup or bust, kids. it’s more fun, of course, on the nights when Nate The Great busts out. Nova Scotia’s shooting star was a Halifax Hammer in Game 4 — over nearly 18 minutes of ice time, the Avs forward collected two goals (his first of the series); three points; a power-play goal (!); one helper; two hits; two blocks and a dozen wins via the face-off draw on 14 attempts.

Given hindsight and an ice pack, a 4-0 series sweep turned into a nice, physical tune-up for the battles to come. More importantly, though, Colorado-L.A. was over with quick enough for everybody in burgundy to rest up for the main event.

The Avs now await the winner of a Stars-Wild series tied at 2-2 as of Sunday afternoon. It’ll be stunning if the battle between the NHL’s second-best and third-best squads doesn’t go the full seven. After all the extracurriculars MacKinnon received over a week of tussles with the K.O. Kings, it’ll be nice to watch two other franchises try to beat one another up.

Everybody took a dip on the chippy side Sunday. As the first intermission loomed, the Kings’ Joel Edmundson clubbed Cale Makar late, and the mild-mannered defender was heated enough to chicken-wing Edmundson with a high elbow before the horn sounded.

About 5:40 into the second stanza, Makar got his payback, bringing the dangle and the dagger. He ducked and weaved around his defender at the right faceoff dot, forcing Kings winger Taylor Ward to play catch-up. Hail Cale finished with a nifty wrister that beat Anton Forsberg top shelf for a 2-0 lead that more or less clinched the Avs’ first Stanley Cup Playoff series sweep, and first opening-round series sweep, since 2022 — the last time Colorado won the Cup.

“I thought this series against the Kings was a good test for us,” Landeskog reflected to TNT. “It was tight. It was hard. It was a good series for us.”

It was brief — which might have been the most important thing, given Los Angeles’ propensity to goon it up. Because once the Avs had snatched a 1-0 lead, the Kings clearly preferred to dance than skate.

With 2:02 left in the first, the Avs’ fourth line snapped. And retaliated. Los Angeles enforcer Jeff Malott lit the fuse when the 6-foot-5 forward shoved Colorado’s 5-9 defender Nick Blankenburg after the whistle. Avs forward Chris Drury butted in to defend his teammate, knowing full well his roster was down a D-man with Josh Manson scratched. The cage match turned into a group scrum when another of the Kings’ big uglies, 6-6 Samuel Helenius, threw a punch at Parker Kelly. That swing drew a 10-minute misconduct penalty and an Avs power play to end the stanza.

Staring at both elimination and Anze Kopitar’s retirement, the Kings brought a desperate look from the jump. Over the first nine minutes, the Avs were outhit 7-2 and outshot 6-2. Goaltender Scott Wedgewood and a friendly post were the only two things keeping the hosts off the board. In a run of six saves over the opening 12 minutes, three on the Kings’ power play, Wedgie’s sweetest might have come 90 seconds in, when he turned away a Cody Ceci slap shot and stopped a point-blank rebound wrister by Scott Laughton.

Wedgewood, meanwhile, kept the Avs out front early and late in the second period.

Keeler: Avalanche goalie Scott Wedgewood is on an NHL Playoffs run Colorado hasn’t seen since Patrick Roy

With 17:51 left in the stanza, the 33-year-old spread-eagled to turn away Jared Wright wrister and two more Ceci looks down low with flailing, octopus arms. With 5:14 to go and the Avs clinging to a 2-1 cushion, Wedgewood drew a snow angel in the crease, sliding on his back to stone Scott Laughton's stabbing attempts.

Having endured the adrenaline rush at the outset, Colorado finally broke the ice on two fronts with 6:47 to go in the opening frame — notching the first power-play goal of the series and initial goal of the postseason for MacKinnon.

The visitors' opening tally with the extra man, coming after an 0-for-9 start on the power play, was almost how Avs faithful would've drawn it up. Landeskog, camped near the net, passed back to Nazem Kadri at the right face-off circle. The Colorado veteran turned left and shifted the biscuit from his circle to the other, where an open MacKinnon had space cleared to fire by Necas crashing the post.

Nate Dogg cocked his stick back and fired a video-game-perfect one-timer past Forsberg for a 1-0 Avs lead. Yet his second shot of the day, the one that turned Dumoulin into Artemis II, left the deepest mark. And the loudest message.

“I feel like (Thursday), we got a lot of chances,” Avs defender Cale Makar told reporters after Colorado inched closer to a first-round sweep of the Los Angeles Kings, taking a 3-0 lead into Sunday’s Game 4. “(We) capitalized on a few, but still, I think there (are) areas of improvement, for sure.”

A dead car battery’s got more juice right now than Colorado with a man advantage. Oh-for-2 on power plays in Game 3. Oh-for-9 for the series.

It’s the first time the Avs have opened the postseason without a power-play goal over its first three playoff contests since 2023. The 2022 Stanley Cup champs had put up six goals with the extra man against Nashville by Game 3 of that four-game series sweep.

And we know, we know: The Avs were a mess on the power play through one of the greatest regular seasons in franchise history — and racked up 121 points anyway. Sure, it’s broke. But they’re too good in every other scenario for you to worry about fixing it, right?

Mind you, we were saying the same thing for months about the Nuggets’ defense and about Aaron Gordon’s health, too. And look how that little narrative is playing out in Minneapolis right now. (Or don’t. It’s ugly. And it could get worse.)

True, the Avs have been stuck in second gear over the first three tilts of this series, and there probably won’t be a fifth game. That’s how strong, how deep, this roster is — four lines of speed and steel stacked one on top of the other.

It’s the next round — when the competition ramps up — where those little things pay off, where the margins mean more. You can rope-a-dope L.A. and end up sweeping the bums to Cancun. Dallas and Minnesota throw punches from your weight class. The Kings are ham-fisted goons. The Stars are ham-fisted goons who can also score, especially on special teams.

Would this be a bad time to mention that Dallas has scored six power-play goals through its first three games against Minnesota this round? And on just 17 attempts?

Or that the Wild were 3 for 15 with the extra man as of late Thursday night?

Or that the Kings ranked 30th (74.6%)  among NHL special teams in penalty kill during the regular season? Or that only Seattle and Vancouver were worse?

If you can’t make it here, you might not make it anywhere.

Avs coach Jared Bednar is loyal to a fault and twice as stubborn when cornered. But this postseason needs more Logan O’Connor and Artturi Lehkonen on the ice — not less.

Lehkonen is a crease-crasher, a garbage collector and a pest, a greasy goal waiting to happen. The Mayor is a terrier on skates, a holy terror. Meanwhile, Nazem Kadri is passing up shots and sometimes looks uncomfortable gripping his stick right now. Why not play LOC with the PP1 unit instead and see what happens?

And we get it — big picture, yes, the Avs are fine. More than fine, in fact. Makar got back on the postseason scoresheet with a classic Cale goal in Game 3, walking the blue line to rack up his first tally since March 18. Nathan MacKinnon managed to keep his cool Thursday despite getting mugged every shift and drawing some curious calls — Embellishment? Really? — from NHL zebras.

Yet in a series that’s been hard on the eyes, Colorado’s power play is still bad for your heart. Once the bright lights of the Stanley Cup Playoffs switched on, it’s been the same sad song, different verse. One pass too many, time and again.

Avalanche vs. Kings NHL playoff schedule

And is Kadri hurting more than anybody has let on publicly? The veteran winger passed up a one-timer with the extra man about five minutes into the third period. If he's not comfortable shooting on the PP, he's probably not helping, either.

Fortunately, Colorado's penalty kill picked up the rest of the special-teams units to put Game 3 to bed late. Lehkonen and O'Connor turned on the jets during a third period Kings PP as Los Angeles' Adrian Kempe fanned on a one-timer at the blue line, sending the puck skipping in front of him like a scuffed golf drive.

Lehkonen closed quickly and started a break the other way, with his brother-in-harms, O'Connor, racing to the Finn's right. The former kept it on the 2-on-1, bouncing a feed off Adrian Kempe's skate and into the goal to give Colorado a 3-1 lead with 12:21 left on the clock.

The Avs did more dumping than chasing and rode their puck luck harder than usual. Then again, it's hard to find a flow

Samuel Helenius popped Kadri in the first period following a whistle. Nada. Later, Josh Manson got planted into the metal part of the boards near the home bench at game speed, suffering an upper-body injury that sent him back to the locker room.

At least Makar got one back for all those elbows to the face with 7:48 to go in the second stanza. Top-line partners MacKinnon and Lehkonen made a staggered double screen in front of the Los Angeles goal as No. 8 glided left to right along the blue line while shooting the puck right to left. With all kinds of Highway 405 traffic in front of the crease, Makar's laser beat Anton Forsberg over the stopper's left shoulder as the Avs went back up in front, 2-1.

With L.A. fans frothing, it took a crazy bounce to get out the Avs rolling out of the gate. About 5:29 into the contest, Gabriel Landeskog nailed his 30th career postseason goal, and one of his wackiest. The Avs captain threw the puck at Forsberg's right post, only for it to sail slightly wide and bonk hard off the boards.

Only the carom was so hard that the biscuit bounced all the way back to Forsberg as he scrambled to corral the puck before a hard-charging Kadri could reach it. The net-minder won the race but lost the battle. As Forsberg chased the puck, he also accidentally kicked the disc into his own net with his right skate for a 1-0 Colorado lead.

"I think there (are) some times when you just don't get bounces like that," Makar noted later. "(It) definitely gave us a little bit of a jolt."

The power play, meanwhile, could use about 50,000 volts, if history is any guide. Since 2020, the Avs are 5-10 against Dallas in the postseason when they convert at a clip of 25% of lower with the man advantage. That includes an 0-2 mark vs. the Stars in Game 7s. It's a slippery slope from one pass too many to one Cup too few.

Much of Jared Bednar’s to-do list over Colorado’s final four regular-season games involves injury management ahead of the postseason.

He just probably didn’t think he would end up on the list.

The Avalanche coach left the home bench early in the third period of Saturday night����ap 3-2 overtime loss to the Golden Knights after getting hit in the right cheek with a puck lifted off the ice by Las Vegas winger Keegan Kolesar.

Bednar doubled over after getting hit in the right side of his head as top-line forwards Nathan MacKinnon, Gabriel Landeskog, Artturi Lehkonen and others all turned to check on him.

After a few moments, Bednar was helped down the tunnel by training staff with a towel pressed over his right temple and head.

Bednar did not return to the bench area for the final 16 minutes, 39 seconds of regulation or overtime.

The Avs fell in overtime, 3-2, when the Golden Knights’ Jack Eichel drilled a wrist shot past Avs goalie Mackenzie Blackwood.

Bednar is “fully alert and fully conscious,” a team spokesperson said after the game, but was set to be transported to a local hospital for a CT scan and further evaluation.

“Obviously I hope he’s OK,” captain Gabe Landeskog said. “That was a scary situation.”

Vegas locks up playoff berth against No. 1 seed

Two nights after securing the President����ap Trophy and rendering their final four regular-season games academic, the Avalanche took the ice Saturday night as the hockey undercard in the state.

Moments before the puck dropped at Ball Arena, the crowd went wild as the jumbotron showed the DU Pioneers finish off a 2-1 national championship win over Wisconsin out in Las Vegas.

Unlike the Pios, who searched for offense much of the night before finding a late flurry, the Avs generated scoring chances early and a first-period lead when Devon Toews hammered home a power play goal 9 minutes, 17 seconds in.

Bedar said Thursday he and the staff would consider how to handle playing time and minutes down the stretch after clinching the Western Conference’s No. 1 seed and every other advantage out there to be had.

For this night, he settled on letting his guys play and at least one inched toward a career milestone. The Golden Knights, meanwhile, had plenty to play for and locked up a playoff spot with the win.

Martin Necas tallied point No. 99 on the season when he assisted on Toews’ opening goal. He needs one more to crest 100 points for the first time in his career.

Vegas leveled the game on a Mark Stone power play goal later in the first period and took a 2-1 lead early in the second before Colorado defenseman Nick Blankenburg scored his first goal in an Avs sweater since being acquired at the trade deadline last month.

With most of its regulars skating but two key pieces still out — Cale Makar missed his sixth straight game due to an upper body injury and Nazem Kadri a second straight due to a finger issue — Colorado generated more scoring chances through the first two periods than Las Vegas.

Among the best: Logan O’Connor skating in alone shorthanded on Golden Knights goalie Carter Hart but getting stopped at the doorstep.

It’ll still go down as a good Saturday for O’Connor, a former Denver University alum whose college team won its 11th title and whose campus went wild just south of Ball Arena.

Landeskog said there were periods where his team “dominated” but also periods where “they were in our zone. I liked our d-zone coverage at that point. Kept them, for the most part, to the outside. I liked our start, first period, quite a bit. They got kind of a fluky bounce, nice play by Stone to tap that one down to himself and put it in. There was good and there was not-so-good. There’s definitely things we can improve on, but overall a competitive game.”

Blackwood started in the net for Colorado and, after the back-to-back goals across the first intermission, settled into a rhythm. He made a series of high-quality stops in the third period and finished with 26 saves on 29 Vegas shots.

After Bendar left the bench, assistant Dave Hakstol took over most duties while fellow assistant Nolan Pratt communicated heavily with Colorado’s defensemen.

It provided quite a wrinkle in what otherwise shaped up to be a straightforward final week of the regular season.

“Certainly it’s a little unnerving,” Pratt said. “It’s scary when pucks are flying in there. It happens all the time and it was unfortunate tonight. It takes a second to recalibrate and get back to it.”

Now three games remain before the playoffs. Vegas is a possible, albeit unlikely, first-round opponent for Colorado, which knows its destiny even as a glut of teams jockey for position down ballot.

Bednar had said he hopes Makar will be back on the ice for at least some regular-season minutes, though at this point it remains to be seen whether that will happen during an early week road swing through Edmonton and Calgary or perhaps Thursday back in Denver for the regular-season finale against Seattle.

In addition to Bednar catching an errant puck, defenseman Josh Manson left the game with an upper body injury, the team announced during the third period, and did not return.

Pratt did not have an update on Manson, saying he’s still being evaluated.

The Avs beat the Flames 3-1 on Thursday at Ball Arena, securing the Presidents’ Trophy and home-ice advantage throughout the playoffs. MacKenzie Blackwood stopped 29 shots before finally yielding a goal late, while Gabe Landeskog, Martin Necas and Nathan MacKinnon all lit the lamp in a game that was not as close as the score indicated.

This is the fourth time that Colorado has claimed the honor for the most points in the NHL’s regular season, joining the 1997, 2001 and 2021 teams. Only one of those teams, the ’01 squad, ended up winning the Stanley Cup.

Of the 37 previous teams to win the Presidents’ Trophy since its inception in 1986, eight have gone on to win the Stanley Cup, with the most recent being the 2013 Blackhawks. So the work for the championship-or-bust Avs — who clinched the Central Division title and the top spot in the Western Conference with a win in St. Louis on Tuesday — is far from over.

“It’s not the trophy we’re looking for,” an even-keeled Necas said from a Colorado locker room short on any sort of celebration, “but it’s a good start.”

On Thursday, it wasn’t near the shellacking that Colorado put on Calgary in the teams’ last meeting two weeks ago, when the Avs scored five times in the opening period to cruise to a 9-2 win. But once again, the Avs were in command for most of the night.

Colorado dominated the possession and chances early, recording the game’s first eight shots on goal. The Avs finally broke through in the waning minutes of the period, taking advantage of a power play with a goal by Landeskog with just over a minute left.

On Wednesday, Landeskog was nominated by the Colorado chapter of the PHWA which is presented annually to the player who “best exemplifies perseverance, sportsmanship and dedication to hockey.” Fresh off that honor, Landeskog took a tic-tac-toe pass from Necas and MacKinnon, with the latter finding Landeskog wide open on the weak side of the net for an easy-money 1-0 lead.

Landeskog echoed Necas’ sentiment, noting that winning the Presidents’ Trophy can only mean so much for a group that has had tunnel vision on raising the Stanley Cup. The Avs’ captain added that he believes this year’s team is “more experienced than that (2021 Presidents’ Cup team), and hungrier than that one.

“It obviously means we’ve had a great regular season and we’re the top team after 82 games, but at the end of the day going into the playoffs, it doesn’t really mean much,” Landeskog said. “Everybody is going to start fresh, 0-0, and you get a chance to prove yourself again.

“It fuels us knowing that we’ve won a lot of hockey games in a lot of different ways, because I think that’s important to remember.”

In the second, Colorado added to its lead with a slick goal by Necas. Off assists from MacKinnon and Brent Burns with about five minutes left in the period, Necas skated his way through the heart of the Calgary defense, splitting a pair of Flames defenders before beating a sprawling Dustin Wolf on the top right shelf.

The play left Wolf facedown on the ice in disbelief for a few moments and gave Colorado a 2-0 lead.

With his assist to Necas, MacKinnon moved into third all-time on the franchise’s single-season point list, passing Peter Stastny’s 124. MacKinnon holds the team’s all-time record, with 140 points in 2023-24, and the Hall of Famer Stastny is second with 139 with Quebec in 1981-82.

“(MacKinnon) has been dominant for us from the very first game, and I expect that to continue (in the playoffs),” Landeskog said.

In the third, the Avs defense cinched down and allowed Calgary very few legitimate chances to get on the board. The Flames finally scored with just under three minutes to go, as Tyson Gross found the net in a six-on-five scenario with Wolf pulled.

With Wolf still on the bench, Gross scored again with 1:29 left, but the goal was wiped off when the Flames were ruled offside after a challenge from the Avalanche. MacKinnon then scored his NHL-best 52nd goal of the season on an empty net with 54 seconds left, setting a new career high.

Colorado has four regular-season games remaining, including two at home against Vegas on Saturday and Seattle on April 16. Avs head coach Jared Bednar said he and his staff will formulate a plan to get Colorado rested and ready for the start of the playoffs.

Bednar says he’d like to see Cale Makar, who has been sidelined for a couple weeks with an upper-body injury, return to action before the playoffs. Meanwhile Nazem Kadri, who is dealing with a finger injury, is “a day-to-day process.”

As for MacKinnon, Bednar says the Avs’ catalyst will be in the lineup if MacKinnon wants to play, and the same thing for Necas.

“We’ve got some guys that have been out of the lineup that I think we need to continue to play, regardless of their stature on our team and how many minutes they’ve played,” Bednar said. “We’ve got some guys that probably could use a break. We’ve got some guys chasing milestones (and awards).

“(In the next couple days), we’ll try to come up with a plan for the last four games, and the last three games for sure, on who we want to rest, how we’re going to do that, and who we can call up (from the AHL’s Colorado Eagles).”

Sean Keeler: When he’s right, Aaron Gordon is the All he does is win, win, win, no matter what. But there’s one factor he can’t charge: karma. Every time David Adelman’s crew takes a step forward, it feels as if the hoops gods cock their heads, laugh maniacally, and decide to set them a half-step back. (See: Murray, Jamal.) Any Nuggets team with AG in it is a team worth taking seriously. But I’ve also watched them stumble against good NBA rosters, playoff rosters, too many times lately to trust the vibes. I also can’t get one image out of my head from Sunday: Nathan MacKinnon smiling. Like, actually, unabashedly smiling. A man embracing the sheer joy of the game, in the moment, for everybody to see. If Naz Kadri could bring that much light to the most serious man in hockey, hey, forget the Stanley Cup, dude. Give Naz the Nobel Prize for sunshine.

Renck: Gordon cannot save the Nuggets’ season. At least not alone. That is becoming obvious since every day brings another co-pay on a visit to the trainer’s room. Denver has the talent to compete for a championship, but lacks health and grit. The Nuggets were supposed to unseat OKC. Clearly, that role has shifted to the Spurs. Gordon needs to become Jayson Tatum, who seamlessly rejoined the Celtics. Gordon delivered an awful performance on Friday night against the Knicks. He is too good to play like this. He deserves the benefit of the doubt. But time is running out on what is becoming an underwhelming season.

Keeler: I was stoked for that Knicks tussle — until about midway through the second quarter. It’s not fair to ask AG to hit the ground running on a bad hammy, but that’s the hole the Nuggets find themselves in down the stretch run. There’s just so little margin for error right now. Denver woke up Monday as the 6 seed in the West with a 39-25 mark. Everything’s changed so much on Chopper Circle since April 7, and yet it’s not always changing for the better. This is a roster that, on talent and reputation, should be able to kick it into another gear. Yet there’s just something wrong with the suspension right now. You fix a flat tire, the bumper falls off. Again: karma.

Renck: At 35, Kadri should be on the other side of his career. Instead, he looks energized. Has there ever been a better Avs’ fit in a deadline deal? He plays his best when the game is big, physical, mean, gritty. He wants all the smoke. The Nuggets’ season will go up in smoke if Gordon fails to provide an edge, toughness, defense and slow-heartbeat 3-pointers. Kadri has the advantage of joining a team that is so loaded that anything less than a Stanley Cup appearance will demand an investigation. This is what was thought about Gordon and the Nuggets a few months ago. But everything about this season feels off, wrong. Gordon has a month to make it right.

Keeler: It’s going to be an interesting month, my friend. Kadri is like AG in that his return, for the most part, brings back the happiest of memories. He’s unlike AG in that the team he rejoined is a 1 seed, absolutely cruising and, as opposed to their basketball counterparts, just built up a little more separation with shootout wins over their closest division rivals. Talking to Naz at his locker stall on Sunday, the man looked genuinely happy to be here. But not as happy as MacKinnon was to share the ice with him. Logan O’Connor, Gabriel Landeskog and Artturi Lehkonen are working their way back, too. It’s no wonder the smiles in the Colorado locker room feel awfully contagious right now.

Kelly created a highlight-reel goal, while Brock Nelson and Martin Necas scored in their first game back from the 2026 Winter Olympics to help the Avs defeat the Utah Mammoth, 4-2, at Delta Center. Scott Wedgewood made 30 saves, including 13 in the third period, to collect the win. Colorado improved to a league-best 38-9-9.

“We’ve got lots of depth,” Kelly said. “Obviously we missed (MacKinnon). He’s a big part of our team, but we have a lot of guys who can step up and play important minutes.”

MacKinnon did not play because of “maintenance,” per a team spokesman. Avs coach Jared Bednar said MacKinnon should be available to play Thursday night at Ball Arena against the Minnesota Wild.

After a scoreless first period, there was an offensive explosion in the middle frame.

Kelly collected the puck in his own end and then skated through four Utah defenders before wiring a shot past Utah goalie Karel Vejmelka at 3:26 of the period. That will be one of the Colorado goals of the season, and it extended Kelly’s career-best total to 13.

“He’s done that a couple times this year, so now we expect it out of him, I guess,” Avs defenseman Cale Makar said. “He’s playing really well this season. It’s awesome to see him scoring as much as he has. He’s a very valuable player for us.”

Kelly helped set up the second goal less than six minutes later. He used his body to keep the puck in the offensive zone near the blue line before sending it to Sam Malinski. The Avs defenseman set up Victor Olofsson in the right circle for his 11th of the season at 9:13.

That is Olofsson’s first goal away from Ball Arena this year. This was also his first game since the birth of his daughter, Viola, on Feb. 10 during the Olympic break.

Dylan Guenther scored the first of his two goals in the period with a one-timer on the power play to help Utah cut the lead in half at 10:49. Nelson, fresh off helping the United States win gold in men’s hockey for the first time in 46 years, answered for the Avs with his 30th of the season at 12:20 of the period.

Nelson, filling in for MacKinnon on the top line, one-timed a pass in the high slot from captain Gabriel Landeskog. This was Landeskog’s first game with the Avs since Jan. 4. He did play five games for Sweden in Milan.

Guenther answered right back 60 seconds later with a snap shot from between the hash marks. That capped a frenetic stretch of four goals in 4:07 between the two clubs.

These two teams ranked 31st and 32nd in the NHL on the power play at the Olympic break, but both clubs scored with the extra man in this one. Colorado’s came on its first opportunity.

Necas, who was Czechia’s best player in Milan, stayed hot. Makar teed him up for a one-timer in the left circle and he blasted it past Vejmelka at 17:17 of the second to put the Avs back in front by two goals. It was his 23rd goal of the season.

“Yeah, I loved it,” Makar said of the work on the power play. “I thought we had some good opportunities. I think we’ve just got to continue to build that. … I really liked the patience we showed with the puck, in zone especially.”

This was the first game with the Avalanche for defenseman Brett Kulak. Colorado traded Samuel Girard and a second-round pick in 2028 to the Pittsburgh Penguins on Tuesday morning for Kulak.

Kulak played 19:03, including a team-high 18:21 at even strength.

“He was good,” Bednar said. “I just think, suppressing scoring chances, he did a nice job. … For the most part, he looked pretty comfortable in our structure, moved the puck pretty well.”

Thump Detroit 5-0 in Motown. Come home and get blanked by those same Wings, 2-0, some 48 hours later. Who flips from cooking like Gordon Ramsay on a Saturday to playing with their food on a Monday night?

Teams without a captain, that’s who.

“You know, you try to help out wherever you can, but at the end of the day, there’s only so much you can do (from the bench),” Landeskog said last week. “You want to be out there on the ice. You want to compete with the guys. You want to be a part of it. But, yeah, you’re a sounding board. You’re a part of it. You’re in some of the meetings. You’re not in others. Keeping sane really hasn’t been an issue for me.”

The Avs will be well-represented at the Winter Olympics over the next two weeks. Save your rosary beads — and your sanity — for whenever Sweden comes on the TV. Landeskog, the Colorado captain who hasn’t played since January 4 after suffering a nasty upper-body injury against the Panthers, intends to suit up for his home country soon — then use it as a launch point for the second half of the Avs’ season.

We don’t know how Landy will look in Italy with the Swedish national team. Or how long it’ll take him to find his feet. But we do know this: The Avs have been a rudderless ship without him. We know how badly they need him back in one piece at the end of the month.

“You just see the impact that (Landeskog) has,” told me by phone a few days ago. “He’s still such an effective player, and with him being out all this time, it just kind of throws a little bit of a curveball at coach (Jared) Bednar and the lineup. And some guys are playing spots probably higher up (in the lineup) than they should.”

For the last month, the Avs have too often resembled their spring 2023 form, that bunch who’d tried to defend the Stanley Cup with all speed and no soul. They’ve lacked focus, poise and physicality. The power play has gone from historically bad to hysterically inept.

Midseason slumps are inevitable during the marathon of an NHL regular season. And the Avs’ latest funk is about more than one guy, we’ll grant you. Like the Nuggets and Aaron Gordon, we’ve gotten used to not seeing Landeskog in the lineup. But like AG, isn’t it funny how the captain seems to make everything else in the rotation sort of … come together? And not just in the box score?

“I felt like (Landy’s) game was just starting to get to a really good spot before he got hurt, which was disappointing,” Bednar said recently. “Now he’s missed significant time again. No. 1, I’m excited that he’s going to be able to go and play (in the Olympics). No. 2, I think, for him playing those games, he’ll just come back sharp and ready to go for us. So that’s a good thing, instead of missing another three weeks with a break and then trying to get up to speed after two months off.”

On Jan. 4, the Avs took the ice in Sunrise, Florida, against the Panthers. At one point, Landeskog appeared to lose his left skate and went careening into the net and end boards.

The Avs haven’t been the same since. Colorado had a record of 31-2-7 that Sunday morning. With no Landy, they’ve gone 6-7-2. Over the last 10 games before the Olympic break, they went 4-5-1.

And it’s the grindy stuff where they’ve felt it the most. During that 4-5-1 stretch, they’ve taken 23 hits per game from their opponents. They’d gotten hit 20 times per game over the previous 45. In the 41 games before Jan. 5, Colorado ranked 18th in power-play goal difference (plus-18) and 26th in power-play scoring percentage (16.3%).

Since Landy’s injury, Colorado ranks last among NHL teams in power-play goals scored (four in 14 games), last in power-play goal difference (zero) and last in power-play scoring percentage (10.5%).

On Jan. 3, the Avs scored two power-play goals early in the third period to rally past Carolina on the road, 5-3. In the 15 games that followed, they’ve scored four goals with an extra man. Total.

told me Friday that he thinks this is just one of those rocky stretches that every team goes through — especially in the dog days of late January.

“Listen, they’ve played the last three seasons without (Landeskog),” Johnson noted, “to good regular-season success.”

True. But postseason success? Not so much. The Avs can skate circles around bad teams, and even most of the good ones. Yet the great ones, once in the playoffs, are inevitably going to slow things down — and try to drag the burgundy and blue into the mud right along with them.

Dallas. Vegas. Bums, the lot. Yet to survive and advance in the playoffs, you’ve got to be able to play ugly. To cash in on special teams. To do the talking with your elbows. Your shoulders. And even your fists, when necessary.

Which is why there’s more to Landeskog’s presence than a stat line of seven goals and 22 points over 41 appearances so far in ’25-26. When Gabe’s right, he’s everybody’s big brother. A calming voice who’s seen everything in the game twice over. A protector who will demand the best from his brothers, but also happily throw down if another team ever dares to mess with them. A counterpoint to Nathan MacKinnon’s relentless drive and blunt, flinty persona.

“They’ve really missed him here this last stretch (of games) because he does have the ability to change the game, to change the momentum of a game,” Olczyk continued. “If you need a guy to stand in front of the net, if you need a big hit, he can do that.”

They need both. Oh, how they’ve missed both. Get healthy. Get nasty. Get right. Without a captain on the bridge, this glorious ship could sink into the springtime again. And take the last gasps of a dynasty right along with it.

Colorado has the most representatives on the for the 2026 Milan Cortina Games that begin next week. Of the 232 athletes on Team USA, the largest American Winter Olympics team ever, 32 are from Colorado.

Colorado athletes comprise 13.8% of the total Team USA roster. The other states most heavily represented are Minnesota (26 athletes), California (21), Utah (17), Michigan (15), Massachusetts (15), New York (14) and Wisconsin (11). In total, Team USA draws from 32 states.

Notable local headliners for the Milano Cortina Games include record-setting Alpine skiers Mikaela Shiffrin and Lindsey Vonn, Carolina Hurricanes defenseman and Colorado College alum Jaccob Slavin, snowboarder Red Gerard, the figure skating pair of Danny O’Shea and Ellie Kam, and freestyle skiing siblings Birk Irving and Svea Irving.

Colorado is most well represented in skiing, with 18 skiers total: eight freestyle skiers, four Alpine skiers, two ski jumpers, two Nordic skiers, one Nordic combined skier and one ski mountaineer.

In addition to the 32 Coloradans on Team USA, the Avalanche also have in the Olympics: Brock Nelson for the U.S., Nathan MacKinnon, Cale Makar and Devon Toews for Canada, Artturi Lehkonen and Joel Kiviranta for Finland, Martin Necas for Czechia and Gabriel Landeskog (who has been injured) for Sweden.

Here is the list of the Coloradans headed to the Olympics, according to Team USA’s official roster. This list includes a Paralympian, sled hockey player Malik Jones, though the U.S. Paralympic roster won’t be set It also includes some athletes who are not native to Colorado but currently live here, and also does not include some Olympians who reside here but do not identify Colorado as their home state.

Coloradans in the 2026 Winter Olympics

Annika Belshaw, Steamboat Springs — Ski jumping

Chase Blackwell, Longmont — Snowboarding

Jake Canter, Silverthorne — Snowboarding

Jason Colby, Steamboat Springs — Ski jumping

Lily Dhawornvej, Copper Mountain — Snowboarding

Alex Ferreira, Aspen — Freestyle skiing

Stacy Gaskill, Golden — Snowboarding

Red Gerard, Silverthorne — Snowboarding

Birk Irving, Winter Park — Freestyle skiing

Svea Irving, Winter Park — Freestyle skiing

Riley Jacobs, Oak Creek — Freestyle skiing

Tess Johnson, Vail — Freestyle skiing

Malik Jones, Aurora — Sled hockey

Lauren Jortberg, Boulder — Nordic skiing

Ellie Kam, Colorado Springs — Figure skating

Elizabeth Lemley, Vail — Freestyle skiing

Niklas Malacinski, Steamboat Springs — Nordic combined skiing

Oliver Martin, Vail — Snowboarding

Charlie Mickel, Durango — Freestyle skiing

Kyle Negomir, Littleton — Alpine skiing

Danny O’Shea, Colorado Springs — Figure skating

Jake Pates, Eagle — Snowboarding

Hunter Powell, Fort Collins — Bobsled

River Radamus, Edwards — Alpine skiing

Madeline Schaffrick, Steamboat Springs — Snowboarding

Mikaela Shiffrin, Edwards — Alpine skiing

Jaccob Slavin, Erie — Hockey

Cam Smith, Crested Butte — Ski mountaineering

Hailey Swirbul, El Jebel — Nordic skiing

Lindsey Vonn, Vail — Alpine skiing

Landon Wendler, Steamboat Springs — Freestyle skiing

Cody Winters, Steamboat Springs — Snowboarding

“I was OK,” the Avalanche center said through tired eyes after scoring twice against Vancouver late Tuesday night. “Yeah, it’s been a grind. Montreal (last Saturday) was hell. (Tuesday) was a little better. Just tired. Just tired.”

While he wrestles an undisclosed malady, MacKinnon’s still flying under the radar at about Mach 3 right now. As the Front Range obsesses over a 10-2 Broncos team and the Nuggets’ sudden indifference to defense, Nasty Nate is quietly painting his professional masterpiece across Ball Arena’s frozen canvas.

MacKinnon’s . He’s on a pace to put up 145 points, which would obliterate his own Avs single-season record of 140, set in the spring of 2024. No Colorado player — not Joe Sakic, not Peter Forsberg — has ever put up 46 points through the season’s first 26 games before. Only one Nordique ever opened a regular season hotter than this fall’s MacK Attack — Peter Stastny collected 48 points through his first 26 appearances of the ’87-’88 season.

“I don’t know. He’s OK,” captain Gabriel Landeskog, who’s also been under the weather, quipped after the Avs’ 3-1 victory with tongue planted firmly inside his cheek.

“No, (MacKinnon) has been — I mean, he’s super dynamic. (He’s) creating in a lot of different ways off the rush, in (the) zone, off the cycle … he commands the attention on that power play and is able to kind of dictate what we end up doing. So, (he’s) just very poised, looks calm out there, in control, and obviously, he’s got the same tremendous speed he’s always had … he’s shooting the puck well. So a lot of things are going well for him.”

Over his last four games, MacKinnon’s scored five times, collected nine points and posted a combined plus-9 in the plus/minus column. Consider this: Tuesday was his seventh multi-goal game of a relatively young season. And that total is already just one fewer (eight) than MacKinnon’s multi-goal nights over the entirety of 2024-25.

Another sign of this Colorado Avalanche team’s dominance? It kept rolling without Valeri Nichushkin

Oh, and did we mention he's been sick for most of that stretch? We did? Cripes, MacKinnon looks better with two bars on his 5G meter these days than most of his NHL peers do with four or five. Despite feeling like hot garbage, the Avs star kept his head on a swivel while keeping the Canucks on their collective heels.

"So obviously, Nate was one of the guys (in the locker room) that was sick," said Colorado coach Jared Bednar, whose 19-1-6 squad opens a four-game road swing at the Islanders on Thursday. "I don't think he was at his best (against Vancouver) on the checking side of it, because that takes a lot of energy and a lot of hard work.

"But here's the thing: You don't have to make every play. But you have to make some big plays. So that's what Nate can do. Even when he's not at his best, he still obviously has the ability — and he stays focused enough on doing the right things to make a play or two that can be difference-making plays for you. And that's what he did (Tuesday)."

The Avs started sluggishly against the Canucks until MacKinnon gave the hosts a swift kick up the caboose. The Colorado vet wristed a rebound past goaltender Kevin Lankinen from the left face-off circle with 32 seconds left in the first period — a score that got the Avs off their collective duffs and onto the scoreboard.

MacK The Knife's second goal, though, was the one that proved to be the dagger. As Colorado led 2-1 with 35 seconds remaining in the second stanza, MacKinnon chased down a loose puck in Vancouver's zone and gently tipped it in the direction of Landeskog,

When happened next was like 2018 never left. While Landy curled into the face-off circle, two Vancouver defenders trailed him the way a tail follows a comet. During a mad scramble, the Canucks somehow decided to leave NHL's points leader free to drift all alone until he'd settled on a firing position in the slot.

Landeskog didn't mess around, and MacKinnon didn't miss, launching a lasered one-timer into the twine for the Avs' third and decisive goal of the contest.

"I mean, (the game) was all right," the Colorado center reflected later. "We're not gonna score first every night. Yeah, it definitely wasn't our best. It was just kind of a boring game, a lot of whistles, a lot of icings ... it was just one of those nights. Just a muck."

Even a bug couldn't spoil Nate's Mucky Day. The masterpiece marches east, lamps lighting the way. For a sick puppy, the dawg in MacKinnon would sooner play dead than ever phone it in.