“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.

Artturi Lehkonen had a shorthanded goal and set up another, while Scott Wedgewood made 24 saves as the Colorado Avalanche clawed its way to another victory, 4-2, Thursday night at Crypto.com Arena. The Avs now lead the best-of-7 series 3-0, and will go for a sweep here Sunday afternoon in Game 4.

Lehkonen led a 2-on-1 while shorthanded and tried to set up Logan O’Connor with a pass. The puck went off Adrian Kempe’s skate and between goalie Anton Forsberg’s legs for what proved to be the game-winning at 7:39 of the final period.

“I was for sure trying to pass to OC on the back side there,” Lehkonen said. “Luckily it went in. It was for sure a little bit of a different kind of goal, but I’ll take it.”

The Kings were desperate in this contest and had the more dangerous offensive chances early on. Wedgewood, who led the NHL in save percentage (.921) and goals against average (2.02) during the regular season, continued his incredible run with another strong effort.

The high-flying version of the Avs has yet to arrive in this series, but the defensively-sound edition backed by strong goaltending continues to be enough against an inferior Kings club.

Lehkonen’s goal became the game winner after Los Angeles cut Colorado’s lead to 3-2 with 4:03 remaining. Adrian Kempe re-directed a shot-pass from Artemi Panarin with Jack Drury in the penalty box for the Kings’ third power-play goal in three games.

Brock Nelson ended any doubt, shooting the puck into the empty net with 2:18 remaining. Anze Kopitar, who has announced he will retire when this season ends, smashed his stick off the boards in frustration. He knows his last NHL game could be Sunday.

Nathan MacKinnon, Martin Necas and Cale Makar — the three highest scorers on the highest-scoring team in the NHL this season — have one point each in this series. It has not mattered.

“That¶¶Òõap how you’re going to win this time of year,” Avs captain Gabe Landeskog said. “We’re doing it as a group. Those guys are checking like dogs and working really hard, both ends of the rink. That¶¶Òõap the way it¶¶Òõap going to have to be for us to win. There’s going to be plenty of opportunities, plays that are going to have to be made, and those guys will make them.

“You see some of that tonight. Cale doesn’t score if Nate and Lehky aren’t in front of the net. Those are plays that aren’t going to show up on the score sheet but are super important this time of year.”

Cale Makar put the Avs back in front at 12:12 of the second period. Lehkonen intercepted a pass by Drew Doughty behind the L.A. net to start the play. Makar took a pass from partner Devon Toews at the left point, then danced across the top of the zone before slinging a shot through traffic for his first goal of the postseason.

Landeskog scored on the one-year anniversary of his return from a three-year absence to give the Avalanche an early lead. Nicolas Roy sent the puck towards the top of the zone and Landeskog was able to stretch and corral it near the blue line.

The Avs captain threw it back towards the Kings net. It went wide, but bounced off the end boards and hit Anton Forsberg’s skate before it crossed the goal line at 5:29 of the first. It was Landeskog’s second goal of the series, and second in as many games after he scored late in Game 2 to force overtime.

Trevor Moore scored L.A.’s first even-strength goal of the series to even the score at 5:55 of the second. It was a chaotic shift. Quentin Byfield had a chance as he drove the net a few seconds earlier, but he was the guy shoveling the puck there. Moore went to the net and the puck went off his body and in.

Josh Manson left the game with an injury earlier in the second period after Joel Edmondson checked him awkwardly into the Kings bench. He returned for one shift — he was tangled up with Moore at the net front and took a high-sticking penalty on the play. Manson did not return to the game after serving the penalty. A team spokesman said he was out with an upper-body injury.

“Unbelievable,” Wedgewood said of the defense corps playing a man down. “We’ve got a good structured game plan back there. They were smart with it. A couple chances (the Kings) did get, they only got one. I didn’t feel like they were whacking away on three or four chances or getting things back to the seam after a rebound.

“It sucks going down a guy, especially when they push in third period, things like that. But I couldn’t be prouder.”

Wright spent three years with the Pioneers, helping the most-successful program in college hockey collect its record-breaking 10th national championship in 2024. He spent Monday night hanging out with some of his former teammates at an Italian restaurant in Cherry Creek, helping them celebrate title No. 11, won last weekend in Las Vegas.

He’ll spend Tuesday night on the ice for the , playing in his second career Stanley Cup Playoffs game against the Colorado Avalanche.

Avalanche vs. Kings NHL playoff schedule

"I think if you would have told me this a year ago, I'd say you're crazy," Wright said. "But yeah, I've just been having a blast. I think DU prepared me incredibly well, just for pro hockey in general when I started in the AHL and here now and in the playoffs. And I can't say enough good things about David Carle and the Pios. I was so lucky to get recruited there and win a national championship there. It was really a big blessing."

Wright left DU to sign with the Kings after last season. He had a great start to his first year as a professional, scoring 17 goals and 30 points in 54 games for the Ontario Reign in the AHL, but that was just the appetizer.

When the Kings fired Jim Hiller on March 1 and replaced him with D.J. Smith, the organization also recalled three players to make their NHL debut in his first game in charge the following day. Wright was one of them, and he hasn't looked back.

"Skating, compete level, play away from the puck -- all the things I think that you tell young guys when they get drafted and most don't do," Smith said when asked how Wright made the NHL so soon and has stuck around. "Most takes them until they're 24, 25 to get those details in their game. I think most young guys it is score, score, score, and if I score, I'll get to play in the NHL. Well, there's only a select few that get to do that.

"The guys that have those details, don't need to score every night if they can provide those details -- speed forechecking. We think as he continues in his career, he will score. He gets breakaways, gets chances, but what's allowing to him to play is his ability to play away from the puck, his ability to get on the forecheck, his ability to play, especially in the D-zone, beat icings -- all those things that typically young guys take a long time to get to. He got there quick."

Wright played in 24 regular-season games for the Kings. His first was against the Avalanche at Crypto.com Arena, a fun footnote for the Burnsville, Minn., native.

Which coach is under more pressure: Nuggets’ David Adelman or Avs’ Jared Bednar?

"It was awesome, the first time just being the Avs," Wright said. "I really look up to Logan O'Connor. When I visited Denver, I sat down with him one-on-one and it was a really eye-opening experience. He won the Stanley Cup when was I there too. He's definitely someone I look up to."

Wright has not scored a goal in the NHL yet. He had four assists in the 24 regular-season games.

As Smith noted, the Kings expect the offense will come. In the meantime, his speed was quite noticeable against the Avalanche in Game 1.

"I'm just trying to stay where my feet are and take it one day at a time with practices and games," Wright said. "Hopefully I can be someone that can be relied upon with the coaches and gain their trust, but I'm not looking too far ahead."

"Stay where your feet are" is a popular phrase across town at Magness Arena. It's one of several that will come up in conversation with members of the Pios over the course a long hockey season.

O'Connor wasn't on the ice that night for Wright's debut in Los Angeles. He was still recovering from an undisclosed issue that popped up after offseason hip surgery.

He was on the ice Sunday afternoon for Game 1 against the Kings. Wright said they didn't say much to each other on the ice, but will look forward to catching up with again after the series is over.

"I had chills going down my back, especially when they were doing the starting lineup and the crowd was going crazy," Wright said of his Stanley Cup Playoffs debut. "You see all the towels. You see it on TV, but when you're actually in the game, you're just like, 'Holy crap. This is the best thing ever.' It was really, really cool."

Drury tracked down the puck in the neutral zone and chipped it back into the Los Angeles end. His reward was a hard hit from Kings tough guy Jeff Mallott into the boards inches away from TNT analyst Brian Boucher.

Just as Drury offered a two-handed response, Logan O’Connor was flipping the puck over Anton Forsberg’s glove and into the Kings’ net for a two-goal lead 5:50 into the final period of a Game 1 victory at Ball Arena.

“Got the puck there, was just trying to put it in (the offensive zone),” Drury said. “OC’s so fast. I feel like he does that a lot, where he isn’t even in the picture and then all of a sudden, he has the puck. So it’s a great effort by him.

It was a grind-it-out Game 1 for the Avalanche, and a great start to the 2026 Stanley Cup Playoffs for the club’s “identity line.” O’Connor was the hero, scoring the game-winning goal. It was his first since the 2025 postseason.

In between were 12 long months.

“Super happy to get it out of the way,” O’Connor said. “Felt like our line over the course of the last couple weeks here during the season, we were continuing to build things. Just try to stick with our game plan. For us, our game translates well to playoffs. It¶¶Òõap a lot of simplicity and muck it up and just wear teams down. It was nice to get that one and finish the job off.”

O’Connor had two goals and six points for the Avs in their seven-game series loss to the Dallas Stars a year ago. He was one of the team’s best and most consistent players throughout the epic series.

Then, for the second straight year, he needed hip surgery. He missed the end of the 2023-24 season and the 2024 playoffs because of the first hip issue.

He had offseason surgery to correct the second. The timeline for him to return was early November. But then a second, still undisclosed issue popped up. Weeks went by without the answers he needed or a plan for recovery and return.

It limited him to the final 13 regular-season games, allowing a quick tuneup before the most important part of the campaign.

“I mean, he’s worked so hard,” said Avs captain Gabe Landeskog, who missed three full regular seasons with knee issues. “Obviously, he was able to come back the last month or so, but hasn’t found the score sheet. We’ve just kept telling him to save them. Save them until we really need him, and tonight we needed it, and he put it in. It was great — well deserved.”

O’Connor thought he had his first NHL goal in 358 days a little earlier in this contest. He ripped a shot past L.A. goalie Anton Forsberg, but Drury had been knocked into the netminder by Kings defenseman Drew Doughty just before the puck sizzled by him.

The goal was waved off for goalie interference, and the decision was upheld after the Avs challenged. Undeterred, that line kept working.

Eventually, they were rewarded with another goal from O’Connor, and there was no doubt it would count.

“For OC, I’m really happy for him,” Avs coach Jared Bednar said. “That’s a long road to get back, and Gabe had gone through (a) similar thing. Being out of the lineup is the worst thing when you’re a player, because you’re just wanting to help and you’re wanting to make an impact. Then you come back and your game’s not going to be 100%. It’s not going to be the top tier right away.

“He’s continuing to work through that to be effective, always committed, always going to work, always going to do everything he can for the team … He’s been really good, and we know he can chip in on the offensive side of things. He did tonight, and I expect he’ll continue to make an impact.”

Depth is a clear advantage for the Avalanche in this series. Colorado’s fourth line exploited that in Game 1.

Drury, O’Connor and Joel Kiviranta were the team’s best regular trio, generating 62.3% of the expected goals while on the ice together at 5-on-5, according to Money Puck.

Bednar’s trust in his “identity line” at this time of year is a staple of the best Avs teams during his tenure. It’s not surprising that while others around him have changed, O’Connor always seems to end up on that line by mid-April.

“It’s hard work and relentlessness,” Bednar said of his fourth line. “They spent the bulk of their time playing in the offensive zone and pursuing pucks. I think that’s exactly what we need from them. We saw it from them last year in the playoffs … It’s a highly-effective line that I can trust against anybody, and that’s all because of the hard work and commitment that they have.”

“A little anxious to get going, but the 1 p. m. game, you don’t really have much (time) to think about it,” Avs goaltender Scott Wedgewood said after stopping 24 of 25 Los Angeles shots in a 2-1 Stanley Cup Playoffs victory. “So just get up, prep, and go. And once we got a few shots on and settled down, the crowd was into it. First TV timeout, I was talking to (fellow goalie Mackenzie Blackwood), just kind of felt like my heart rate was a little high. But once we got going, it just felt like normal again.”

The nicest thing you could say about Wedgewood — “Wedgie” to the Ball Arena faithful who chanted his name repeatedly Sunday — was that his first-ever career NHL postseason start, at age 33, looked pretty much like one of his normal, composed regular-season outings in burgundy and blue.

For the most part, he kept the action in front of him. If not for a funny bounce in the third period, he would’ve kept every puck in front of him, too. Nineteen even-strength saves, five power-play saves, no muss, no fuss.

“We have so much trust in him and he’s super-composed,” Avs forward Logan O’Connor said Colorado’s now-official 1A net-minder. “Super-positive all the time, whatever the circumstances are. And we know if we have breakdowns, which are going to happen, he’s got our back throughout that. And just seeing his game grow, (as a) late bloomer, having the best season he’s had in his career right now at the perfect time for our team has been special to watch.”

Wedgewood, sitting to O’Connor’s left on the Avs’ makeshift stage, lit up at that one.

“Thanks, dude,” the goalie said.

It couldn’t have happened to a nicer bunch of bums. And chippy bums, at that. The Kings went into this series with a lot of bark and almost no offensive bite. Los Angeles let its elbows do most of the talking Sunday, and the message was clear: We have no chance in heck to beat you clean, so you wanna throw down some gloves and dance?

Clarke shoved O’Connor at least once. With eight minutes left in the contest, Kempe bonked Cale Makar in the back of the head, then went to the box for mixing it up with captain Gabe Landeskog, who came to Makar’s defense, shortly thereafter. At least it served the top-seeded Avs a taste of what’s to come — eight straight weeks of knuckle sandwiches.

“Absolutely, the intensity and physicality (are) going to ramp up as the rounds go on here,” O’Connor, the Mayor, a scrapper and poacher built for playoff hockey, noted after scoring his first goal since last April 26. “We know teams are going to want to try and push us out of games. We feel as though we can push back just as hard. I think that’s one great thing about our group, is the versatility within our locker room.

“You want to go (the style of a) 1-0 game, we like to think we can beat you at that. Track meet, if it happens, we’ve got that. Physicality, we have guys that are willing to step up. You know, as that happens, just try not to get frustrated with it. Teams are going to try and get under our skin, get under Cale (Makar’s) skin, whatever it may be, and I think it’s just on us to continue to respond with playing the right way, being disciplined, and continue to just stick to our game plan without getting frustrated.”

With that, Wedgewood leaned into the microphone and grinned.

“Not much more I can add,” the goalie deadpanned.

He added more than enough between the pipes. Wedgewood had to be on his tootsies early — the first 11 minutes were a snooze-fest, by and large. At the 9:06 mark of the opening stanza, the two teams had combined for as many giveaways (seven) as shots.

“I think just the atmosphere of it, you know, regular season-wise, you can get into some lulls throughout the game,” Wedgewood noted later.

“It’s always like you’re engaged, you’re going, and then once the TV timeouts or whistles go, I kind of flush it. Almost rely on (flushing) it, kind of like a golf shot. Each play, you’ve got something coming at you to dial in … And (that) just seems to kind of keep my brain from just being on all the time and getting exhausted and then also being completely out of it.”

Sunday proved more labor than love. The Kings have only two paths for pulling off an upset in this series: Either boring the Avs to death while hoping goalie Anton Forsberg can somehow steal a win; or goading multiple Colorado stars into assault and battery charges, and suspensions, along the way.

Los Angeles spent most of Sunday slowing the tempo and trying to drag a faster, better team into the mud with them. With 4:31 left in the second period, Nathan MacKinnon wristed a low line drive from the right faceoff circle that Forsberg parried but couldn’t corral. Enter Artturi Lehkonen, who swooped into the crease to clean up with Doughty still riding his back, remaining upright and curling the rebound around Forsberg’s right leg to finally light the tamp. When No. 62 cocked his head back to scream in chorus with the crowd, it felt like sweet relief as much anything else.

“They’re a tight-checking team, physical team, good team,” Avs scrapper Jack Drury said. “But we are, too.”

And until the final three minutes, Wedgewood met the moment as a No. 1 Cup goalie. With five minutes left in a scoreless first period, No. 41 turned away an Artemi Panarin wrister. With 3:11 left in a scoreless first period, The Avs veteran stoned a Trevor Moore wrister, then hung in while Doughty missed an open net.

“WED-GIE!”

“WED-GIE!”

“WED-GIE!”

Forty seconds into the second stanza, Wedgewood produced another nice save on a wrister by hard-charging Alex Laferriere. He held firm on the Kings’ first power play following the Avs’ unsuccessful replay challenge midway through the stanza.

“WED-GIE!”

“WED-GIE!”

“WED-GIE!”

As the Avs led 2-0 with 11:13 left in the third, the Colorado goalie found himself literally wedged into his left post while the Kings stabbed at his ankles. Nothing.

“WED-GIE!”

“WED-GIE!”

“WED-GIE!”

And 2.94 goals for the game. Los Angeles also whiffed on two open nets in the first 40 minutes. Luck be a Landy!

“What did you think of Scott Wedgewood’s first NHL playoff start?” Avs coach Jared Bednar was asked.

To this, the stoic Bednar raised an uncharacteristic (and bruised) eyebrow.

“Ever?”

“Yup,” the scribes murmured.

“Didn’t know that.”

“That said, what can you say about his game?”

“I thought he was fantastic,” Bednar replied. “Yeah, did everything he needed to do. Obviously, bigger stakes, more emotion, but played the exact same way that he’s been playing for us all year.”.

Ever the cad, Bednar still wouldn’t commit to saying Wedgewood when asked if 41 would be his starter for Game 2 on Tuesday night.

“Not going to answer that,” the Avs coach groused.

He doesn’t have to. The scoreboard did it for him. There’s a reason the Kings are walking kinda funny into Game 2 on Tuesday night.

Artturi Lehkonen and Logan O’Connor scored, while Scott Wedgewood made 24 saves in his first career Stanley Cup Playoffs start, and the Colorado Avalanche ground out an 2-1 victory in Game 1 of its opening-round series Sunday at Ball Arena.

The Avs, winners of the Presidents’ Trophy and the top team in the NHL since Nov. 1, did not dominate the Kings, who finished 20th in the league standings, as was the consensus expectation. The visitors played well, keeping this game from being an up-and-down affair for much of it.

Wedgewood and the Avs handled their business, albeit with some nervy moments mixed in, and collected a 1-0 lead in this best-of-seven series. Game 2 is back here Tuesday night.

“I’m really happy with how we played, too,” Avs coach Jared Bednar said. “I think that’s the kind of game you can expect playing the Kings. It’s a tight-checking team. What did they play, 50-something one-goal games and low-scoring games? I’m comfortable with that. I think our team’s comfortable with that.

“Managed the puck well, so our guys played the right way and got the job done tonight. Now we’ve got to go do it again.”

Lehkonen broke the stalemate with 4:31 left in the second period. It was a classic Lehkonen play.

The puck went behind the net, and Lehkonen was there to harass Kings defenseman Drew Doughty’s attempt to rim the puck out of danger. Nathan MacKinnon thwarted said attempt along the wall, then sent the puck at the net. Lehkonen was there again, ready to corral the rebound and slide it past Forsberg.

“Getting the first one is always big,” Avs forward Jack Drury said. “(Lehkonen), I always tell him he’s a net-front savant. He’s so good in front of the net. He won a battle and put it in.”

That wasn’t the first time the puck was behind Forsberg. Colorado thought it had the opener earlier in the middle period. O’Connor ripped a shot from the right circle past the Los Angeles netminder, but it was immediately waived for goalie interference on Drury.

The Avs challenged the call because it was contact with Doughty that sent Drury off-balance into Forsberg, but the no-goal ruling was upheld and the home side assessed a penalty for the failed challenge.

Per the NHL, the review confirmed a ruling in accordance with Rule 69.1 which states, in part, “Goals should be disallowed only if: (1) an attacking player, either by his positioning or contact, impairs the goalkeeper’s ability to move freely within in his crease or defend his goal.”

It’s been a thorny season, to say the least, for the Avs with league rulings on goalie interference, so maybe it was fitting for the first puck in the net this postseason to be a controversial one.

“I saw Jack Drury driving the front of the net, and I saw Doughty make contact,” Bednar said. “Disguised it pretty well, but backs into him, knocks him off his edges into the goalie and we shot in the net. To me, I’d like to see it count. They saw it different, not losing any sleep over it. Kill the penalty and move on.”

There were a lot of tense moments in the opening 35 minutes before Lehkonen’s goal. Colorado dominated the puck for the first 5-6 minutes of this game, but not nearly as much as expected after that.

The Kings had two great chances to steal the opening goal, but both Doughty and Artemi Panarin missed an open net with chances when Wedgewood was down or out of position to make a stop. Colorado also had three chances with the power play, but came up empty.

O’Connor did get his first goal of the 2025-26 season early in the third to give the home side a cushion. Drury sent the puck towards the Kings end as he was heading towards the bench, and after a couple of bounces on the Ball Arena ice, O’Connor was able to track it down behind an unsuspecting Kings defense and then roof an in-tight shot past Forsberg.

It was O’Connor’s first goal since Game 4 of the opening-round series against Dallas last year. He had two assists in 13 regular-season contests this year after missing much of the campaign with offseason hip surgery and then a second undisclosed issue that popped up during his recovery.

His goal was part of an excellent afternoon for Colorado’s fourth line, which included O’Connor, Drury and Joel Kiviranta — not Ross Colton, who had practiced with that group Saturday but became the odd-man out for Game 1.

Panarin ended Wedgewood’s shutout bid with 2:22 remaining in third period. He scored through some traffic with the Kings on the power play and with the goalie pulled.

Joel Armia took a high-sticking penalty with 1:48 remaining to short-circuit any hope of a late Los Angeles comeback.

Wedgewood, 33, became the eighth-oldest goalie in league history to make his first NHL playoff start. He finished the regular season with the league’s best save percentage (.921) and goals against average (2.02) and it was hard to argue with his coach’s decision after this opening act.

“Yeah, just a really consistent presence back there for us,” Avs defenseman Cale Makar said. “He made the saves when we needed him to. Wish we could have helped them out on the one there, but just tough. I thought he played great and helped us out a lot.”

Sure, there were other great stories. The Buffalo Sabres returning to the playoffs, Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin leading the Pittsburgh Penguins back to relevance and the rise of Macklin Celebrini and Matthew Schaefer are just a few.

But the Avs broke the league for half a season with a historic start. They’ve been atop the NHL standings every day since Nov. 1. The 121 points is among the top 10 in league history.

Nathan MacKinnon scored the most goals. The Avs as a team scored the most and allowed the fewest.

It goes beyond just the on-ice results. The Nordiques-inspired uniforms were the most talked-about fashion choice. Colorado won the trade deadline by adding Brett Kulak, Nicolas Roy and then Nazem Kadri at the last minute.

Even the introduction of a remix of as the team’s entrance music at Ball Arena, a nod to the 30-year anniversary with an all-time classic from 1996, was a huge success and immediately among the 3-5 best in the NHL.

Now, it’s time to find out if this will be remembered as one of the greatest teams of all-time. Win 16 more games, and it will be true.

“I think everyone understands the reality of how hard it is to win,” Avs goalie Scott Wedgewood said. “I think (the regular season) just makes you hungrier to prove it. It wasn’t just a fluke. It wasn’t just, ‘We got lucky and won some games and all that.’ I think we all know what kind of team we are when we play the right way.

“I think the mentality is just don’t squander this opportunity, this lineup, this expectation.”

Every NHL player wants to win the Stanley Cup. None of them cares about style points or how the path to get there will be remembered. It’s the same with fans of every NHL team.

No one in St. Louis cares if the 2019 Blues aren’t remembered as one of the all-time greats. No one in Dallas cares if the first thing some people outside of Texas think about with the 1999 Stars is Brett Hull’s skate.

Every Cup winner is a champion forever.

But some have been more revered than others throughout history. There are certain years where the champion is just synonymous with all-time excellence, even decades later. It’s 1977 and the Canadiens, 2002 and the Red Wings. It’s early, but 2022 and the Avalanche is a strong contender.

The Avs have put themselves in a position to be included in that group.

“It’d be special,” Avs forward Logan O’Connor said. “I think for us, it’s don’t look too far ahead. Cliche as that sounds. I think it starts with L.A. It starts with Sunday at 1 p.m. and it’s taking care of business in the first period. I think it’s easy this time of year to get over-excited and forecast and watch other series and see what’s going on, but I think the biggest thing is just no distractions and worry about the group we have within here.

“I think if we do the right things and play to our game plan, trust each other, play to our identity, great things are going to happen.”

Winning so much and in such dominant fashion has put the Avalanche in this position. The Avs stopped being a team that could win the Cup and became the team that should win the Cup months ago.

The trade deadline additions and the strong finish only reinforced that. The expectation to win a championship has been the same inside the Colorado locker room since Day One of training camp. The external expectations have risen dramatically since then.

“I think the group knew what we had, and even more so after the deadline,” Avs center Brock Nelson said. “But I think we’ve got a pretty good mindset that even with trying to set out to be the best team in the league for the regular season, we never really strayed from (our focus). Obviously a couple off games, but I think we stuck with it. And the main focus is to win a Stanley Cup. We know we’re not there yet, so there’s still a lot of work to be done. One singular focus now, starting with this first round.”

No team is destined to win the Stanley Cup, especially in the salary cap era. Even the most dominant regular-season teams that did complete the job — think 2013 Blackhawks and 2022 Avalanche — still had some moments of adversity along the way.

Everyone also remembers the most dominant teams that didn’t reach the finish line. Think the 2011 Canucks, the last club to finish first in goals for and first in fewest goals against. Or the 2019 Lightning and 2023 Bruins, which both flamed out in all-time first-round upsets.

Barring terrible injury luck, there isn’t any middle ground left for this Avalanche team. It’s either win 16 games and become one of the all-time greats, or this group joins the latter list of what ifs and what could have beens.

“There has to be a mentality there, that we’re willing to go and earn what we want,” Avs coach Jared Bednar said. “We’re not deserving of anything. It’s all going to be about the way we play and being willing to earn it.

“I think all of our guys understand that. We’ve been through some heartache here in the first few rounds of playoffs, and I think that’s still fresh in our minds.”

Hughes, a 24-year-old senior from Michigan, signed a one-year entry-level contract for the 2026-27 season, the Avs announced Saturday. He will also sign a professional tryout contract with the Colorado Eagles and join them immediately.

“On the ice, he’s a two-way, 200-foot player with and without the puck,” Michigan coach Brandon Naurato said. “Great hockey IQ. We play a similar style to the Avs, so I think he’ll fit in well. Off the ice, I think he’ll be a great fit in that locker room. He was a captain and great leader for us. Those guys tend to know how to act when they get in a room with the (Gabe) Landeskogs, (Cale) Makars and (Nathan) MacKinnons) of the world.”

Michigan’s captain this season, Hughes was the highest-profile undrafted free agent in college hockey. He finished the year with 22 goals and 57 points in 40 games for the Wolverines, including a goal Thursday night in their semifinal loss to the University of Denver at the Frozen Four.

“There’s really no words,” Hughes said about his time at Michigan after the Wolverines lost in double overtime Thursday night to DU. “It means everything. I tried my best to leave it better than I found it. There’s so many unbelievable people within Michigan hockey that have impacted my life in a positive way.”

He was a finalist for the Hobey Baker Award and also earned first-team All-America honors. Hughes, like fellow Michigan alum Gavin Brindley, also won Big Ten player of the year, helping the Wolverines to the No. 1 overall seed in the NCAA tourney.

Hughes, listed at 6-foot and 185 pounds, was a star in college hockey for multiple years. He and Brindley were freshmen together in 2022-23 and played together for two seasons. Hughes finished his college career with 69 goals and 179 points in 150 games. The Wolverines made the Frozen Four three times in his four years.

“Oh my gosh, he changed the program,” Naurato said. “For him to come back this year, that’s a story we will be telling future players for years to come. He showed that you can come back and lead Michigan to championships, to Frozen Fours, while also making himself even more NHL ready.”

Hughes also spent three years with the Brooks Bandits in the Alberta Junior Hockey League. He was the AJHL MVP in 2021-22, and spent two years as teammates with Avs prospect Taylor Makar.

He is the latest victory for Colorado in the UDFA market. The Avs have had great success with signing players like Logan O’Connor and Sam Malinski and helping them become key NHL contributors. Malinski, who signed a four-year, $19 million contract extension with the Avs in late January that begins next season, is represented by the same agency as Hughes.

Colorado’s quest for another Stanley Cup has led the Avs to trade away many prospects and draft picks, which both motivates the Avs to be aggressive in the UDFA market and makes the franchise an attractive landing spot, as evidenced by the success of some of their signings. The Avs have also added Penn State forward Matthew DiMarsico and Bowling Green defenseman Gustav Stjernberg as UDFA’s in the past month.

Elder was one of four presenters during the HALO conference and meetings Tuesday at Ball Arena. Hosted by Arik Parnass, who leads the Colorado Avalanche analytics department, the conference was the largest collection of NHL analytics staffers the league has ever seen. Each of the presentations was a finalist for the conference’s hackathon competition.

A graduate student at the University of Pennsylvania, Elder gave a presentation on a metric to better define forechecking success called PRESS (puck recovery and exit suppression score). Shortly after Elder’s presentation, there were several attendees who wanted to speak further with him on the topic.

“It’s been great,” Elder said. “I’ve never presented at a conference before, let alone in front of like, real NHL people. It was very cool. I was a little nervous, like I think everyone would be, but I felt very prepared, so I feel like I did an OK job.

“I tend to think that no one is going to solve hockey, or come up with a singular thing that is like, ‘This is how you win more games,’ or ‘this is how you score more goals.’ I’m very interested in the aspects of the game that are somethings like the game within the game. With forechecking, the object isn’t to score a goal, it’s to get the puck back. That’s an aspect of the game that feels like it could be optimized in some way.”

Elder grew up in Northern Virginia, rooting for the Washington Capitals. His goal after school is to some day work for an NHL team.

As part of the hackathon competition, all of the contestants were given the same set of data — a batch of AHL games from two seasons ago — to work with. Elder and his partner, Jonathan Pipping, went through about 28,000 forechecks, and developed a model for league-average success rates in two components of forechecking.

They were then able to score players against that average. One member of an NHL team’s analytics staff said the findings from Elder and Pipping lined up pretty closely with what his club’s research into forechecking success has found.

Colorado Avalanche forward Joel Kiviranta didn’t spend much time with the Colorado Eagles in the AHL, but he was there during the timeframe of this set of games. He also scored as one of the top-five forecheckers in Elder’s metric.

“I’m sure there are groups that are collecting that data and analyzing it however they want to analyze it,” Avs forward Logan O’Connor said. “As the game evolves, analytics have obviously become a huge part of sports in general, and especially with hockey. It would definitely be fascinating to see the tendencies and player-to-player matchups, how teams do it differently, and what the success is, where the puck is, where the player is, and whatnot.

“I think at some point analytics can become overwhelming, because hockey is so dynamic. Baseball analytics are a very easy, set number of things that they look at, whereas hockey is so fluid that I think it can definitely get challenging. I’m sure those guys are brilliant for a reason. I’m sure they have ways around it.”

The Avs are one of the most aggressive forechecking teams in the NHL. It’s the the fuel for their offensive engine. Colorado wants the game played at a frenetic pace, and dialing up the pressure far away from their own goaltender when the Avs don’t have the puck often allows them to create turnovers and continued offensive threats.

NHL teams have been trying to identify the best forecheckers for as long as there has been scouting. Avs coach Jared Bednar has said how his team forechecks is one of the first indicators he looks at to see if his team came ready to work in a particular game.

“I mean, I would love it,” Parker Kelly said of a standardized forechecking metic. “As a forechecking guy, yeah. I feel like there’s got to be forechecking stats out there already. Maybe it’s not a league-wide set, but we have our own in here and that’s a big stat we do look at.

“I feel like that’s kind of a staple of our game. When our forecheck is humming, it’s usually a good indicator of our legs. We’re hunting the puck. We’re making good decisions. I’d love to sit down and go through all of those types of stats. I find them really interesting.”

It takes hard work to forecheck, but there’s more to it than a player just skating around and throwing his body around to be an effective forechecker at the highest levels. There is skill and craft involved. Most of the best forecheckers don’t rely on big hits.

Guys like Kelly, O’Connor and Kiviranta are well-versed in the other team’s plan to get the puck out of danger. There are times when the best forechecks don’t involve hitting at all, but rushing a defenseman into making a poor decision.

As Elder noted in his presentation, the forechecker who creates the original turnover often never touches the puck and therefore never gets any credit in a traditional box score. Elder’s model hopes to define better credit for players at each level of a forechecking system.

One of the attendees at the HALO conference was Andrew Cogliano, special assistant to Avalanche general manager Chris MacFarland. Cogliano was one of the league’s most respected forecheckers for years. It’s not hard to imagine a world where, with more defined and readily available data like Elder’s PRESS metic on who the best forecheckers are, a player like Cogliano being an even more valuable commodity.

“I think with the skill of it, in regard to things like body position, angling, stick position, that’s something that would be hard to put a metric on,” O’Connor said. “It is a bit more challenging, but as you average things out over a season or a career, you could definitely see tendencies and who specializes in it, and who can make a career out of doing that, for sure.”

“Results are — they come as they come,” Jared Bednar said before his Avs eviscerated Calgary, 9-2, at Ball Arena on Monday night. “And whether they’re good or bad, other people make decisions based on what they’re seeing and hearing. But I can always walk out of here every day with my head held high if I know I’m doing my best. And that’s how I kind of approach it.”

Life comes at you fast. Bednar’s contract comes up at the end of next season. This year has been fantastic — so far. No coach wants to be a lame duck. If you’re Avs owner Stan Kroenke, it won’t be long before all parties are staring at two expensive forks on a long and winding road.

that short of a first-round exit in the Stanley Cup Playoffs for the best team in the league, “all signs” point to Bednar landing an extension from Kroenke Sports and Entertainment.

Win a playoff round? One? That’s it? That sounds like an awfully low bar for a team on pace to rack up at least 120 points during the regular season. Especially one that features Nathan MacKinnon, Cale Makar, Martin Necas, Nazem Kadri, Brock Nelson, Val Nichushkin and Nicolas Roy, all at the same time, a legitimately scary roster that goes four lines and two goaltenders deep.

Bednar has taken the Avs to eight straight postseasons. He’s failed to get past the second round in seven of them.

So let’s make it two rounds, at least. No Western Conference final? With this much firepower at your disposal? No contract extension. Period.

And we know that the Battle For Lord Stanley’s Cup can be an untamed, unpredictable sort of beast. But in Avs franchise history, it’s the only beast that matters. Or, at least, it’s the only beast that’s supposed to.

Or does KSE aspire for the Avs to be to the NHL of the ’20s what the Atlanta Braves were to the baseball of the ’90s? The Braves notched 14 playoff berths from 1991-2005 and came away with one World Series title to show for it. If the Cowboys were America’s Team, Atlanta was America’s Bridesmaid.

“For sure, it’s a volatile league (for coaches),” Avs sparkplug Logan O’Connor told me Monday after morning skate. “I think Bedsy, his work ethic and his preparation is something (where) there is zero complacency in what he does day-to-day, I think.

“How he operates, the meetings he runs, the message he delivers, what he expects from players, having good relationships with players — I think he creates a clear picture of how he wants us to play.”

Bedsy’s current three-year extension runs through the end of the 2026-27 season. Which means that clock’s already ticking. It doesn’t sound as if KSE wants to leave him dangling, the way CSU did with former football coach Jay Norvell last fall. An awkward summer internally and externally in FoCo went south quickly, and Norvell wound up being fired in mid-October after a 2-5 start.

And we get it. On one hand, why rock the boat? The Avs have 12 seasons of 100 points or more in their Denver history — and Bednar has been in charge for five of those. (Marc Crawford is next-highest on the list, with two.)

Colorado had already piled up 106 points before Monday night’s Flames tussle and started the week on pace for 121 points on the season. That would shatter the old single-season record, also held by Bednar, of 119 — set by the Cup champs of ’21-22.

On the other hand, the other bullies in the West aren’t exactly standing pat. Dallas canned Pete DeBoer last June after three straight losses in the conference finals and a 149-68-29 record during the regular season. On Sunday, Vegas fired Bruce Cassidy at the tail end of his fourth season after a 178-99-43 record, two division titles, and a Stanley Cup title in 2023.

So are they the crazy ones? Or is it the Kroenkes?

“Yeah, well, different ownership, different management beliefs, I guess, in some situations,” Bednar said. “So, I’m very grateful to still be here and trying to accomplish the same goals we’ve had when I first came. So, I don’t know.

“I work with great people that I like. Ultimately, I’m trying to come to the rink every day with a positive attitude and do the absolute best job I can do to help our team win, right? Being respectful of the players, developing those relationships that so when I go to a player with something that they know, I don’t have to yell and scream at them to get a message across, that they understand what I’m saying, how important it is. And I’m certainly willing to hear them out on things too …

“I don’t think that you can ask a player to do anything else but to just give his absolute best and get dialed into what he’s doing. And I don’t know — that’s what I expect from myself on a daily basis (in) leading this team. And then I don’t worry about anything else.”

Since ’18-19, the winger has served valiantly as a bottom-6 high motor, a plugger who refuses to downshift during big moments. The DU alum was arguably Colorado’s second-best contributor after MacKinnon during that soul-crushing playoff series against Dallas last spring. Through thick, thin, and parades, he’s an unabashed Bednar guy.

“It’s on us to go out there and execute (his) expectations,” O’Connor said of his coach. “But I think he just has the utmost respect from us players. And it’s no surprise that he’s had as great of a run as he has, given the volatility in the market. And we all love playing for him.”

They can prove it next month. Because if Colorado goes out in the second round again, Avs fans are going to look and vent as if they woke up on the wrong side of the Bedsy.