With the scars of past playoff failures still fresh, the Avs assembled in September with a determination and focus to achieve specific goals: Win the Central Division. Win the Western Conference. Win the Stanley Cup.

The Avs were done with “just get in,” in part because of how loaded the Central has been in recent years.

“I think it¶¶Òõap just our striving for excellence all season, from the first day of camp,” Avs star Nathan MacKinnon said. “We’ve had some new faces, but I think losing the way we did last season, I’ve mentioned it, can kind of bring your team a little closer. We still needed a little help and got some great players throughout the season. I think it¶¶Òõap more just you’re building it all season, for 8-9 months.”

The result was a historic 31-2-7 start, and first place in the NHL for the final five months of the season.

The reward was an inferior opponent in the first round, while these Wild waged war with the third-best team in the league, the Dallas Stars. Colorado faced that problem in the first round last year, but fell just short.

Minnesota prevailed, but at a tangible, dear cost.

While the Avs cruised to a four-game sweep, the Wild lost critical shutdown defenseman Jonas Brodin in Game 5 against the Stars, then No. 1 center Joel Eriksson Ek.

Neither played a minute in this series. In some ways, this series was over before it started.

“They deserved to win this series, plain and simple,” Wild defenseman Brock Faber said. “That’s just where it just gets frustrating, right? Because when we are at our absolute best, I think we can beat this team.”

Key additions at NHL trade deadline

The Avalanche won this series at the trade deadline.

Colorado general manager Chris MacFarland had the best team in the NHL for months, but he won the deadline, adding shutdown defenseman Brett Kulak, versatile forward Nicolas Roy and brought back 2022 Stanley Cup hero Nazem Kadri. Dallas and Minnesota, who were chasing Colorado all season, did not match MacFarland’s moves.

The Stars added defenseman Tyler Myers and forward Michael Bunting. The Wild added forwards Michael McCarron and Bobby Brink. Myers hurt more than he helped, and the Wild took advantage. Bunting and Brink were relative non-factors — Brink was removed from the lineup in the Dallas series and didn’t play against Colorado.

When the Stars did not have top center Roope Hintz available, their lack of depth hurt them. When Minnesota was short in this series, the Avs’ increased depth devoured the Wild.

Colorado has two overtime goals in this postseason, both from deadline additions Roy and Kulak. Kadri has helped the power play awake from a season-long slumber. Roy has been immense in these playoffs.

When the Avs lost two key players after Game 3, Artturi Lehkonen and Sam Malinski, they didn’t miss a beat. When Cale Makar was clearly laboring in the final couple of games of this series, Kulak and Brent Burns were outstanding.

“Huge,” Avs coach Jared Bednar said of Kulak and Burns. “I mean, you can’t understate that. You’re without (Josh) Manson early. (Manson) comes back, you’re without (Sam) Malinski. You’ve got Cale fighting through stuff. I mean, there’s only six (defensemen), right? And guys need to step up.”

Not over until it’s over

The Avalanche won this series when the score was 3-0.

Minnesota had never lost a game in the Stanley Cup Playoffs when it led by three goals. MacKinnon started telling teammates on the bench that more than 40 minutes was a long time to hold a lead against this Avalanche team.

Then the Avs took control of this contest. Minnesota tried to park the bus, either consciously or not.

Colorado trailed at the second intermission 23 times this season. The Avs won five of those games, but also got six to overtime. That’s 11 comebacks, or nearly 50% of the time.

The belief mattered. Having the ability to dictate matchups on home ice mattered. Minnesota’s top players exerted more energy in this postseason when Games 4 and 5 were on the line.

It’s a popular narrative in the NHL that the regular season does not matter. For the teams at the top of the Central Division — which were first, second and third in the NHL standings for a chunk of this season — it ended up mattering a great deal.

“Obviously, getting home ice is huge,” MacKinnon said. “We haven’t had that in a long time, so it¶¶Òõap good for us. I think Game 5s at home are awesome. I think (Bednar) has done a great job from camp stressing culture and defensive hockey and he’s not worried about our offense.

“Yeah, I think it¶¶Òõap just a build up from the whole season.”

Makar Macouldn’t.

No. 8’s shifts became as labored as Homer Simpson running up five flights of stairs. Cale Makar, the Avalanche’s star defenseman, didn’t even come out to the bench at the start of Game 5’s epic overtime finish. At one point, All Hail Cale a wince you felt from a distance, pain even national TV cameras couldn’t hide.

How do you know when it’s your year? When it’s your Stanley Cup? While the best D-man on planet Earth could barely hold a stick, Brett Kulak sticks it to The Wall of St. Paul.

“You always like to dream about it, but like you say, the player I am, I’m not the guy everyone’s looking down the bench at, like, ‘All right, get out there and go win it for us,'” said Kulak, the hard-charging but soft-spoken D-man whose fourth career postseason goal — in 107 playoff games — was his biggest, an overtime winner that sent Colorado to the Western Conference Final for the first time since 2022.

“No, it’s been good. It was a tough series. That’s a good (Minnesota) team over there. So for us to play the way we did and get the job done — and then, just for me, (it was) a special goal in my career, for sure.”

A gorgeous one, too. A rocket launched from the right face-off dot, set up by a whirling Martin Necas, who’d jumped onto the ice when he realized the Avs were a man short.

“I just saw (that) we’re coming back in our zone. And, you know, we had four guys, so I was like, ‘Might as well jump there, you know? I don’t care,'” Necas recalled later when asked about his second helper Wednesday. “So yeah, it worked out … great play by (Parker Kelly), banging it to me, and then I just did whatever I saw.”

He went around Wild goalie Jesper Wallstedt’s net, came out the other side, and saw Kulak in the face-off circle.

“We built on momentum from the third (period), carried (that) into OT,” Kulak said. “And just for me personally, Marty carried it up, (got) his wheels going around the O-Zone, and I just kind of was able to slide into an open spot in the weak side of the ice, and credit to him. (He had) good vision and put it right in the perfect spot for me to get a good shot.”

And even sweeter redemption. Earlier in the evening, for the second Minnesota goal of the night with 8:57 left in the opening period. Colorado stared at a 3-0 deficit after the first intermission. It was Game 3’s dumpster fire, compressed into 20 minutes of offal.

“Yeah, I mean, you get buried a couple goals (down) in the first, and they’re all over it,” Kulak said of the Avs’ crummy start. “You’ve got no time and space, and you feel like it’s going to be a long night.

“(So you) just kind of chip away, one shift at a time, and you start to get the momentum, and things start to shift.”

Trailing 3-0, a defense that had half a Makar or no Sam Malinski at all somehow held the Wild to seven shots over the final 44 minutes.

“(That’s) huge, yeah,” said coach Jared Bednar, whose team improved to 8-1 through its first two playoff series of 2026. “I mean, you can’t understate that.

“When you look at (Brent) Burns’ series, I mean, because you’re without (Josh) Manson early. (Manson) comes back, you’re without (Sam) Malinski, you’ve got Cale fighting through stuff. I mean, there’s only six (defensemen), right? And guys need to step up. We were four guys rolling on the bench … I think Burns’ (Minnesota) series was incredible, and obviously Kulak’s was the same.”

“So how is Cale feeling?” I asked.

Bednar paused.

“Cale is OK,” the coach replied.

He sure didn’t look it late. Especially after Makar and Minnesota’s Mats Zuccarello had collided behind the net in the third period. The Avs’ star defender quickly grimaced, dropped his stick and appeared to grab his right shoulder in agony. Then he headed to the tunnel. Gingerly.

“It’s not just one guy who steps in and takes over the minutes,” said Kulak, now tied for second this postseason among Avs defenders in points (five) while ranking third in ice time per game (20:48). “I think everyone has to chip in, and the whole team has to just play solid hockey.”

“Was that your first (goal)?” MacKinnon asked Kulak during their news conference.

“Yeah,” the defenseman replied.

“So another guy,” MacKinnon said with an almost bubbly grin. “I mean, that’s a great stat. You know, that’s the stat you want to see — team stats and, you know, everyone’s chipping in.”

How’s this for chipping in? Kulak is just the seventh guy in NHL history to have his first goal for a new club be a series-ender in the postseason. He’s also the 16th different Avs player to score this series, tying an NHL record.

“I love it, I love it,” Bednar said of scoring depth that overwhelmed a Minnesota roster without Joel Eriksson Ek and Jonas Brodin. “That’s hard to beat.

“When you have different guys stepping up every night, you can’t key on one guy. There’s no sort of coming in to play our team and (saying) like, ‘Well, if we shut down the (Nathan) MacKinnon line, we’re going to win.'”

These Avs can beat you with speed, with size, with strength, with cunning, with defense, with goaltending, by land, by air, or by sea. General manager Chris MacFarland’s trade deadline additions — Nicolas Roy, Nazem Kadri, Nick Blankenburg — loom larger by the week, letter-perfect finishing touches to a core of Makar, Nathan MacKinnon, Necas, Gabriel Landeskog and The Lumberyard between the pipes.

And there’s Kulak, who came over from Pittsburgh in the Sam Girard swap, now only the third guy in NHL annals to play with MacKinnon, Connor McDavid and Sidney Crosby. The 32-year-old’s last two postseasons ended in the Stanley Cup Final with the Edmonton Oilers. Dude knows what this is supposed to look like. What it’s supposed to feel like.

“I think at (this) point, it just becomes a group effort throughout everybody that’s going,” Kulak said. “I mean, Cale is battling out there. He’s playing really well, and it (stinks) having Sammy (Malinski) out. He’s a big piece of the team, too. So when guys are coming and going, and you’re missing a couple bodies here and there, other guys just step up and fill the void.”

Makar somehow logged 25 minutes Wednesday night while being held together by duct tape and piano wire. Manson toughed it out through 19:19. Burns, who was born in 1985 but wears a beard from 1885, put in 19:47 of ice time. In May and June, it doesn’t matter who carries the flag, just so long as that bad boy, however tattered, gets over the line.

The Colorado Avalanche had just defeated the Minnesota Wild in Game 4 of this second-round series to take a 3-1 series lead. It was Manson’s first game back after missing the past four because of injury.

But … that wasn’t why he was talking.

“Good,” Manson said when asked how he felt. “You can just get to the question you want to ask me.”

Manson was there to talk about his tussle with Minnesota’s Michael McCarron, which ended with him in the penalty box for one of the rarest infractions in the sport — a double-minor for butt ending. McCarron hit Manson along the boards in the first period and then fell on him.

As they were grappling on the ice, Manson caught McCarron with the butt end of his stick. McCarron rolled off the Avs defender and squirmed in discomfort.

“He hits me, but then he lands on me. I didn’t really like that, to be honest with you,” Manson said. “We’re in a scrum and I butt-ended him. Was it on purpose? Was that my intention? Absolutely not. My intention wasn’t to butt-end him. Did I want to punch him in the head? I did want to punch him in the head. I was trying to give him a smack because I didn’t like that he landed on me. I didn’t think that was fully necessary.

“I served my four-minute penalty. They looked at it. It wasn’t my intention to butt-end him in the face. It was more trying to smack him in the head. I just lost awareness of where the grip was.”

Manson’s butt-end brouhaha did wind up hitting him in the business end of his checking account. The Avs defender early Tuesday afternoon received a $5,000 fine from the NHL’s Department of Player Safety for his role in the incident, the maximum fine allowed under the league’s collective bargaining agreement.

No penalty called while the puck was still in play. After the four officials huddled, there was a review to see if a major penalty was committed. One of the linesman had to say he saw something during that huddle to initiate the review.

After the review, Manson was assessed the double minor for butt-ending. ESPN’s rules analyst Dave Jackson said during the television broadcast that the officials can assess a double minor for an attempted butt end, but the five-minute major and game misconduct only if there is clear video evidence that the player connected.

Minnesota scored on the second half of the power play to take a 1-0 lead in the game. The Avs were already missing Sam Malinski, who was out with an upper-body injury. Jack Ahcan also made his Stanley Cup Playoffs debut, replacing Nick Blankenburg as the No. 6 guy on the depth chart.

Losing Manson for the game could have been critical for the Avs.

“I’m not sure exactly what their options are when they make that call,” Avs coach Jared Bednar said. “To look at it, I was just hoping that it didn’t have to be a major because I didn’t think, like … he definitely hits him with his stick and a little undisciplined there. But it didn’t look to me like it was vicious enough to be a five-minute major and a game misconduct. So at that point, I was just kind of hoping for the best and that (Manson) would be able to stay in the game.

“I think they probably made the right call, and he was able to do that. They got the power play goal out of it, and we had to go to work and try to even the game up.”

McCarron called Manson a “dirty player” during a first intermission interview with ESPN’s P.K. Subban. Then doubled and tripled down after the game.

“I blew him up, and he grabs me and pulls me on top of him. He’s a dirty player,” McCarron said to Minnesota reporters. “He took his butt-end and clearly butt-ended me in the face. I don’t know how it’s not five minutes. I think the rule book says it’s a five-minute if you butt-end someone in the face.

“He’s a dirty player. He’s always been. Not very well-respected.”

Manson was a little more diplomatic when asked about McCarron’s accusations.

“That’s fine. If he wants to call me a dirty player, he can just look at my history,” Manson said. “It’s been 13 years and I haven’t been suspended yet. I’m not that dirty. I think there are other guys in the league that are doing more.

“Was that the cleanest play? No. Was it purposeful? No. It wasn’t purposeful either. I served my time. They scored on it. Benefited them. That’s his perspective.”

The Minnesota Mild threw every trick they could lift from Whiny Pete DeBoer’s playbook at the Avalanche in Game 4. Especially the dirty ones.

The Wild flopped like a walleye just pulled from They begged. They moaned. They worked the refs as if it were a Champions League semifinal, a baloney sandwich of pleading arms and empty arguments.

Minnesota had Stars in its eyes, all right. Dallas Stars. Yet the Avs rallied through all that bulljunk and bluster for a 5-2 win Monday night — bringing a 3-1 series lead back to Ball Arena for Game 5 on Wednesday.

Whenever the Wild dug deep on Monday, Colorado dug deeper. Ross Colton. Jack Ahcan. From goaltender Mackenzie Blackwood winning his first playoff start to a “checking” line of Parker Kelly (one goal, three hits), Jack Drury (one assist, two hits) and Joel Kiviranta (two hits), almost every one of coach Jared Bednar’s tweaks paid off.

It takes a village to lift Lord Stanley. The Avs reminded everybody why they’ve got more pitchforks within arm’s reach than any locker room in North America. Colton celebrated his return to the second line by breaking a 1-1 tie on a wrister with 13:04 left in the contest that bested Minny netminder Jesper Wallstedt on his stick side — his first goal of the postseason.

And it was the Avs’ fourth line, Bednar’s favorite sons, that kept the Stanley Cup favorites on top. With 8:28 to go, Kelly took Drury’s pass in the slot, cocked his stick back, and beat Wallstedt with a laser into the top shelf for a 3-2 Colorado lead.

The Avs came in crashing, relentless waves, although it took a while for Minnesota’s Wallstedts to break. With 13:59 left in the second period, the Avs were outshooting Minnesota 17-4. Colorado managed to break through on attempt No. 19 seven seconds later, via their second power play.

Nazem Kadri got a great look off a wrister from the front of the right face-off circle, only for Wallstedt to parry the point-blank look. But the netminder couldn’t corral it, and Kadri gathered his own rebound and whistled it past Wallstedt to get Colorado on the board with 13:52 left in the stanza.

Like the Broncos and Seahawks, the Avs have the kind of defense that travels well, the kind of defense that can win anywhere. The Wild went 19 minutes in the middle period without a shot on goal at one point.

Colorado landed more shots (10 to 4), hits (12 to eight), and takeaways (three to none) than the Wild did over the opening 20 minutes, but couldn’t lay a glove on Minnesota early.

Well, except for one glove in particular. And that belonged to Avs defender Josh Manson, who celebrated his first game in this series by getting a shot in from his backside.

With 12:53 in the first, Minnesota’s Michael McCarron forechecked the Avs D-man into Manitoba, then landed on him with all of his 6-foot-6, 242-pound frame.

As the two clenched, UFC style, Manson appeared to poke at the bigger assailant near the ear with the end of his stick, then threw a left jab with his fist while McCarron lowered an elbow. Manson’s shot landed, but the bigger Wild forward responded as if he’d been popped by Conor McGregor, shooting his head back and collapsing to the ice while clutching his face.

Manson was assessed a four-minute double minor for butt-ending with his stick. He was lucky, in hindsight, that the zebras didn’t toss him. A call for landing the butt-end of the stick is a five-minute major and a game misconduct.

“You played against Josh,” McCarron told ESPN’s P.K. Subban after the opening period. “He’s a dirty player. He’s always been. Surprised he got away with only a four-minute (penalty). I’m happy he’s still in the game.”

Mr. Mc-Karen looked awfully happy to lie on Manson for a few extra seconds, too. Embellish much?

“My intention wasn’t to butt-end him,” Manson said later. “Did I want to punch him in the head? I did want to punch him in the head.”

If you’re curious, Manson averaged 80 regular-season penalty minutes per 82 games over his NHL career. McCarron’s logged 111 penalty minutes per 82.

Once a Temu tough guy, always a Temu tough guy.

Alas, as with Game 3, the hosts didn’t waste any time taking advantage of the extra man. Minnesota defenseman Brock Faber launched a frozen rope from the blue line, and, like Saturday, a Wild forward was camped out comfortably in the Colorado crease to redirect it. Minnesota’s Danila Yurov doinked the dart past Blackwood, and 9:46 into the game, Grand Casino Arena smelled blood in their beers.

But after that, to his credit, Blackwood held fast between the pipes — at least until midway through the third stanza. Colorado wisely kept most of the action on the Wild’s side of the rink, but Blackwood turned away 11 of the first 12 Minnesota shots he faced.

If nothing else, No. 39 vindicated a lineup change from Bednar that threw everybody a curveball. Manson and Ahcan in on defense, Sam Malinsky and Nick Blankenburg out. Kiviranta in, Artturi Lehkonen out. And the losses weren’t small ones, either: Lehkonen put up a team-high plus-9 in plus-minus with six points through his first seven postseason games. Malinsky was second to the feisty Finn in plus-minus (plus-7) with three points from the blue line.

And unlike Pavel Francouz in 2022 and Michael Hutchinson at the bubble in 2020, Bednar turning to Blackwood between the pipes was a switch of choice.

Bednar never moved off of Alexandar Georgiev in 2024, even though Lord Stanley knows Four-giev gave him plenty of reasons to. He stuck with Philipp Grubauer in 2021 during a second-round Vegas series that flipped from fairy tale to nightmare fuel.

Francouz got four starts during that 2022 run to a title because Darcy Kuemper, Bednar’s preferred starter, suffered an eye injury against Nashville and an upper-body one in the opener of the Western Conference Finals against Edmonton. Frankie finished off the Avs’ 4-0 sweep of the Oilers, and other than Pavel’s relief stint during a Game 3 loss in Tampa, Kuemper wrapped up the Cup champs’ coronation with wins in Game 4 and Game 6.

It’s a long, hard road to a parade, but the Avs, with a 7-1 postseason mark, can just about make out the exit ramp to the promised land, begging in the distance. The path to a title runs through Chopper Circle again. And Colorado is a win away from bringing a deserved curtain down on

Parker Kelly and Ross Colton scored huge third-period goals Monday night to help the Avs fend off the Minnesota Wild, 5-2, in Game 4 of this second-round series at Grand Casino Arena.

The Avs, despite playing without Artturi Lehkonen and Sam Malinski, now lead the series 3-1. They can close it out Wednesday night in Game 5 at Ball Arena.

“You never know when your opportunity is going to come,” Kelly said. “Ross has been playing great, our line’s been playing great. Everyone’s just been trying to do the right thing, and you just got to stay ready. It’s one shot. It’s one play you got to bear down on that’s probably going to come your way.

“It’s just about staying ready, and all these guys in here are ready. It was a great goal by Ross to get us up, and then (Mackenzie Blackwood) shut it down for us.”

Kelly’s first goal of this postseason put the Avalanche ahead with 8:28 remaining in the third period. Jack Drury made a great play to cause a turnover and get the puck to Kelly for a shot from between the tops of the circles.

Blackwood made 19 saves in his first start during the 2026 Stanley Cup Playoffs, including several big ones early in the third period.

Colton gave the Avs their first lead of the night at 6:56 of the third period. At the end of a long shift in the offensive zone, Nicolas Roy corralled the puck in the high slot and found Colton to his left with a great pass for a one-timer and Colton’s first goal of this postseason.

“It was a great win,” Colton said. I think it starts with (Blackwood) coming in. He was awesome all night. He kept us in it. … But like Parker said before, just the depth of this team, it’s pretty special. We’ve seen it all year. I mean, this guy (Kelly) scored 20-something (goals). That’s pretty awesome. And again, it’s kind of just the next guy mentality.”

Former Avs forward Nico Sturm leveled this one at 2-2 a little more than two minutes later. He and Brock Nelson got tangled up in the right corner, and when Sturm got up and cut to the net, Quinn Hughes found him for a one-timer. It was the first goal of this postseason for Sturm, who won the Stanley Cup with Colorado in 2022.

The Avs dominated the start of this game on the shot clock, but it took a little more than 26 minutes to solve Minnesota goalie Wallstedt. Nazem Kadri scored on his own rebound during a power play at 6:08 of the second period, seven seconds after ex-Avs forward Yakov Trenin was penalized for closing his hand on the puck.

Martin Necas set up Kadri on the play, drawing ire from the home fans for knocking Wild defenseman Brock Faber to the ice to win a puck battle before sending the puck across the zone to Kadri. It was Kadri’s second goal of the postseason and Colorado’s fifth with the extra man in this series.

Necas also set up an empty-net tally from Nathan MacKinnon in the final minute to seal the win, and then Nelson added another with eight seconds left.

The Avs held a 20-4 lead in shots on goal at one point during the second period, and a 17-1 advantage in scoring chances at 5-on-5, per Natural Stat Trick, but Wallstedt, who allowed eight goals in Game 1, a 9-6 Avs win and didn’t play in Game 2, was spectacular at times, particularly early in the second as the visitors pushed for an equalizer.

Colorado was in control for most of the opening seven minutes of this game, but a collision between Minnesota’s Michael McCarron and Josh Manson was a pivotal point in the first period. As they were wrestling on the ground away from the play, McCarron spun off Manson and writhed on the ice in apparent pain.

There was no call while the puck was in play, but the officials conferred and reviewed the tussle for a potential major penalty. The end result was a double-minor for butt-ending. The officials determined that Manson attempted to hit McCarron with the butt end of his stick.

The Avs killed off the first half, but Danila Yurov tipped a Brock Faber point shot past Blackwood to give Minnesota a 1-0 lead at 9:46 of the opening period. McCarron did a first intermission interview with ESPN, during which he called Manson a “dirty player.”

Lehkonen and Malinski were both late scratches for this game because of upper-body injuries. Both participated in the morning skate, but the team announced their absences just as pre-game warmups began.

“Obviously those two guys, they mean a lot to the team,” Blackwood said. “But I think anybody we throw in there, they know what the job is and and how to do it. I think we’re pretty resilient, and we showed that today.”

Manson returned to the lineup after missing the past four games, and Joel Kiviranta was back in the lineup after missing the past five. The Avs also gave Jack Ahcan his Stanley Cup Playoffs debut, inserting him for Nick Blankenburg.

MacKinnon exited near the end of the second period after Avalanche defenseman Devon Toews, on the left side of the Avalanche net, tried to clear a puck that the Avs star didn’t see until it hit him square in the nose. MacKinnon immediately dropped his stick and crumpled to the ice while covering his bleeding face with both hands.

After a trainer ran onto the ice, MacKinnon skated to the locker room with a towel over his face, but was back on the bench by the start of the third period.

“Looking at our roster and the way the game went, there’s a lot to like,” Avs coach Jared Bednar said. “I didn’t think we had any passengers tonight from our goaltender out. Guys played hard, regardless of ice time. Every time they hit the ice, they were ready to go. You have to be pretty happy with that.”

When the puck went toward the net and not his stick, Nichushkin was visibly frustrated. In the big picture, it was a rare sight. Nichushkin is not typically an outwardly emotional player. It also wasn’t the last bit of visible frustration for the uber-talented Russian wing during a 5-1 loss in Game 3 of this second-round series against the Minnesota Wild.

Nichushkin and Brock Nelson have been a steady, two-way force all season for the Colorado Avalanche on the club’s second line. They haven’t been able to break through on the offensive side of things so far in this postseason, and it boiled over a couple times for Nichushkin in Game 3.

“Yeah, I have noticed it more,” Avs coach Jared Bednar said Sunday of Nichushkin’s frustration. “You have to work through it. It’s a frustrating time of year, playoffs. Guys that want to produce, it’s hard to produce. I think it’s something that you’ve got to work through.

“So as a coach for me, this morning talking about some of those things and like, ‘Well, why are we frustrated here, and what led to that frustration,’ right? So there’s details in the game for me that I can help with — not just Val but other forwards on our team. Like, you’re feeling frustration last night? This is why.”

Nelson has slotted in as the club’s No. 2 center in 79 of the 82 regular-season games this year. He missed one game, and Nathan MacKinnon missed two so he moved up to the top line on those nights.

His most-consistent linemate this season is Nichushkin. Both players are large, great skaters and strong defensively. They found chemistry almost immediately, and became of the league’s great two-way, one-two punches at even strength.

Nelson is a finalist for the Selke Trophy, awarded to the league’s best defensive forward. Nichushkin will receive votes as well, and is one of the NHL’s best on the wing.

They combined for 50 goals and 114 points, and were the team’s fourth- and fifth-leading scorers. It’s been a different story, so far, in the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

Both have one goal in seven games. Both goals were into an empty net. They’ve combined for three assists.

“I mean we have to find ways to be more possessive with the puck, sustain a little bit more in the o-zone, and generate a few more chances,” Nelson said Saturday night. “I feel like we’re confident in the ability that we have. Some nights might be a little bit different depending on the matchup or how the games running with special teams. So defensively, yeah, I think we’ve been pretty solid, but offensively there’s more.”

Among forwards with at least 500 minutes of ice time at 5-on-5, Nichushkin was second in expected goals for percentage (xGF%) in the NHL this season at 60.33%. Nelson was eighth at 59.0%.

Factor in how Bednar deployed them — often against top offensive lines, often starting in the defensive zone — and they were the NHL’s best duo at the flipping the field position and helping the Avs control games at even strength.

They are at the bottom of the Avs’ xGF% leaders through seven games in the playoffs, and the only two forwards worse than 48%.

Bednar hinted that there could be some lineup tinkering for Game 4, which is Monday night at Grand Casino Arena. Nelson and Nichushkin have had a different third guy on their line at various points, from captain Gabe Landeskog to Ross Colton, Artturi Lehkonen and a brief cameo for Parker Kelly.

The Avs won six straight games to open this postseason. There’s been few reasons for concern, but another loss or two without more help at the offensive end from Colorado’s two-way terrors would change that narrative in a hurry.

Nelson and Nichushkin are a dynamic defensive duo, but the Avs are going to need more to help make this playoff run reach the destination they’re shooting for.

“I just think as a group of three, they have to be more connected, closer to the puck,” Bednar said. “I felt like last night, (the Wild) did a nice job of getting their bodies around the puck in o-zone play, and we were a little spread out and a little slower to get support for the puck. Every team’s going to try and close you quick, come up with a quick battle, get the puck and get out of the zone, right? And in order to counteract that, you have to have numbers around the puck, and you’ve got to be physical and competitive in there to come up with some pucks to spread them out so you can play in o-zone play.

“To me, that line was a little slow to get there, not connected enough as a group of three to come up with enough pucks to spend more time in o-zone play.”

“We needed to do something to get our guys fired up and going,” Avalanche coach Jared Bednar said of his decision to pull goaltender Scott Wedgewood and replace him with Mackenzie Blackwood during a 5-1 loss at Minnesota late Saturday night. “I was hoping that would be part of it.â€�

Life in the woodshed wasn’t all Wedgewood’s fault. Kirill Kaprizov spent so much time in the Avalanche crease Saturday, Bednar could’ve charged him rent. The Avs got outhit, outworked, outhustled, out-detailed, out-everything-ed. Colorado takes a 2-1 series led into Monday’s Game 4. Minnesota took Saturday’s head-to-head count on blocked shots (15-8), special-teams goals (2-1), takeaways (7-3) and hits (39-25).

Game 3’s stinker was a team effort, in all the worst ways possible. Minnesota had too many open men in front of the net. The Avs were second too often to 50-50 pucks, second too often to the corner, second too often on the little things that add up in a series this close. It was Nuggets-Timberwolves Game 6 on ice. Not that anybody wanted a sequel.

“We didn’t play good enough,” Bednar said, “to win that hockey game (Saturday) against a desperate team.”

Wedgewood was nowhere near good enough, either, don’t get this wrong. He lost his stick on one goal. On another, he lost a puck the way an outfielder loses a flyball in the sun. With the Avs trailing 3-1 and Wedgie replaced by Blackwood in net, it took the latter all of 20 seconds to give up the fourth goal of the evening and make a steep climb steeper.

Sure, Blackwood stopped 12 of the 13 shots he faced. Yep, he steadied the ship late during some choppy waters.

But ask yourself a question: In a Game 4 that will determine whether this is a series fought to the bitter end or becomes another quick Avs tune-up, would you trust Wedgewood or Blackwood to carry you over the line on the road? To stop the bleeding versus a Minnesota bunch with 18,000 Midwesterners at their back, screaming at every shift change?

When they said this series could use a little more character, the hockey gods gave us Hannibal Lecter. There were about 17 things you’d take back from this one, in a heartbeat. Any Avs postseason game refereed by Kelly Sutherland automatically starts with one eyebrow raised. But Colorado didn’t help itself for a lot of the same reasons the Nuggets didn’t on the other side of the river. Effort, mostly. Coaching. Stuff in the margins. Nick Blankenburg has been fine in the D-corps, but from a physicality standpoint, Josh Manson can’t get back quickly enough.

At the 5:06 mark of the first stanza, Avs forward Logan O’Connor lost the puck and poked at Jesper Wallstedt’s stick as he slid behind the net. A donnybrook between Parker Kelly and Ryan Hartman at the boards broke out, setting up matching two-minute minors.

The Avs let things snowball from there. Kaprizov opened the scoring with a backhand deke that wrong-footed Wedgewood 17 seconds into the 4-on-4. With the Wild up 1-0, Devon Toews was whistled for hooking Matt Boldy with 4:08 to go in the opening frame, giving the hosts a 4-on-3 look and a leg back into the series.

Wedgewood saved a Mats Zuccarello snapper, but lost his stick somewhere along the way. When Minnesota cycled the carom back to Quinn Hughes, the Olympic star didn’t miss. The D-man glided untouched between the faceoff circles and lasered a wrister over Wedgewood’s non-stick stick hand while Kaprizov snuck into the crease to screen the netminder’s line of sight. By the time Wedgie saw the biscuit, it was tickling the twine behind him as the hosts extended their cushion to 2-0 with 3:16 left in the period.

Minnesota notched its first power play of the second stanza 3:39 into the period and twisted the knife less than a minute later thanks to a flukey deflection and a killer finish. Toews’ deflection bounced high from the left face-off dot toward Wedgewood’s net — but before the goalie could control the rebound, Hartman swatted it like a pickleball volley in mid-air and past the Colorado goaltender for a 3-0 Minnesota lead.

Bednar yanked Wegewood immediately after and replaced him with Blackwood, the first time he’d pulled the former since a disastrous start at Ball Arena against Pittsburgh — — back on March 16. Wedgie gave up three goals on five shots that evening over 13 minutes between the pipes. It wasn’t just  No. 39’s first action of the postseason — it was his first stint in 25 days.

“BLAAAACK-WOOD!” the locals chanted sarcastically.

“BLAAAAACK-WOOD!”

It was a “message ” move on Bednar’s part, to be sure, and just like that Penguins tilt, things didn’t improve much. The Avs finally got on the board via their second power-play chance on a Nathan MacKinnon goal that had an Artturi Lehkonen vibe to it. With 6:49 left in the stanza, the Colorado forward snuck in at the right post behind a Gabe Landeskog sandwich. Landy had fallen on Wallstedt in the net, while Minnesota D-man Daemon Hunt had fallen on the Avs captain, allowing the puck to squirt loose and evade everybody but No. 29, who chopped it over the line to light the lamp.

Back came Minnesota less than 30 seconds later. Brock Faber got loose up the middle of the ice on a Wild break, deflecting Vladimir Tarasenko’s snapper on Blackwood stick side for a 4-1 lead with 6:29 left in the middle frame.

As for what’s next, best strap it down. This is the Wild’s 10th postseason series in which they opened with an 0-2 deficit. They wound up losing eight of those first nine matchups and only three of those nine made it past Game 5. The only series they turned around? A first-round tussle with Colorado in 2014, one Mikko Koivu, Zach Parise and company stole in seven.

“I thought we came out,” Faber said, “with desperation.”

And this party’s only about to get Wilder. During the regular season, Wedgewood started 22 games on the road, posting a 16-4 record, a 2.01 goals against average (GAA) and a .923 save percentage and two shutouts.

Blackwood away: 18 starts, a 13-3 mark, a 2.19 GAA, a .921 save rate and … two shutouts.

When a push comes to shove … trust your gut. And your eyes. The last eight times Wedgewood’s given up three goals or more in a game, he put a 6-2 record over the eight games that immediately followed. And surrendered two goals or fewer in five of them.

“We’ll have a decision to make (in goal),” Bednar admitted. “But we have a decision to make every night. Some of them are easier than others.”

This one’s a cinch. Dance with the goalie who got you here. Just because Wedgewood lost his stick doesn’t mean he should lose his pipes.

It was a dream year for Kelly, who scored seven, one, eight and eight goals in his first four NHL seasons. He blew by career-best numbers, resetting his personal bar with 21 goals and 35 points despite playing fewer than 13 minutes per game.

Six games into this postseason run, Kelly does not have a goal or a point. But, there are no alarm bells going off. No awkward scrums with the media grilling him about a slump Saturday morning ahead of Game 3 of this second-round Stanley Cup Playoffs series against the Minnesota Wild at Grand Casino Arena.

Kelly has still had a strong start to this postseason, even without the goals.

“It’s a weird thing,” Kelly said. “Like, you want to help out the guys on the score sheet. But I’ve said this before, I wasn’t most proud of the number of goals I had this year. I was just proud of being consistent and being good at both ends of the ice. I mean with playoffs, you start thinking more after a couple games, but I’ve been happy with what I’ve done defensively, on the kill has been really great. There’s so much more to my game than scoring.”

Kelly and Logan O’Connor flank Jack Drury on Colorado’s fourth line. They are Jared Bednar’s “identity line” and scoring goals is not at the top of the list of their objectives. They will chip in — O’Connor had a big one against Los Angeles, Drury had a nifty one in Game 1 against Minnesota — but their priorities start with strong defense, strong forechecking and energy.

Their job is to tilt the ice in Colorado’s direction. Goals are a bonus. A perfect shift for them starts in the defensive zone and ends with an offensive zone faceoff they’ll never see. Get the puck to that end of the ice, and force the goalie to cover it up or, even better, an opposing player to ice it.

Then they head for the bench, one of the scoring lines comes out to try and capitalize on what they started.

“I think in general, he’s not a guy that equates goal scoring to playing well,” O’Connor said. “I think there’s plenty more intangibles that signify if he’s playing well. It’s hard on pucks, finishing checks, getting in the dirty areas, creating momentum for the other lines, being good defensively, being good on the penalty kill. I think those are all things he’s done a great job of. Hasn’t had a chance to capitalize on his opportunities yet, but as long as you’re getting them, you can’t really be too particular this time of year. Five-on-five goal scoring is so hard to come by right now. And I think if our line continues to build things the way we have been here, we’ll find the back of the net soon.”

Kelly found his way in the NHL with the Ottawa Senators. It took until his third season to become an everyday guy, and the Senators decided not to tender him a qualifying offer in June 2024, so he went from being a pending restricted free agent to unrestricted.

He signed a two-year contract with the Avs on July 1, 2024. He was such a great fit with Colorado the club signed him to a four-year extension on July 1, 2025, the first day he was eligible.

Kelly was one of the best bargains in hockey this year, scoring 21 goals despite making just $825,000. Even with his raise to $1.7 million per season that kicks in next year, Kelly is on a cap-friendly deal.

He’s joined O’Connor as a critical glue guy on a team full of offensive stars.

“We have so many guys on our team that can score. I have zero pressure,” Kelly said. “Obviously I love to score, but realistically, like if I went the whole playoffs with zero goals, I think I would still be proud of my defensive game. I feel like I’ve had chances to score and hopefully one of them will soon. But I’m not putting pressure on myself to, like ‘I need it. I need it.’ anyway. There’s just always been more to my game than goals and assists.”

Kelly and Drury are staples on the league’s best penalty kill. The Avs have allowed one 4-on-5 goal in this postseason, shutting out the NHL’s third-best power play through two games of this series.

That line is swarming the Wild with forechecking pressure. Minnesota’s role players were a big story of the Wild’s opening-round win against Dallas. They’ve been chasing guys like Kelly and O’Connor around in this series and not having the same physical impact.

Avoiding the pitfalls of believing he has to score now that he’s shown he can do it is a big part of why Kelly is still thriving.

“I think that’s the smart way to play,” Avs coach Jared Bednar said. “He wasn’t pressing in the regular season and he scored 20, but he just plays to his identity. I think that’s what mature, experienced players do. They know what makes them successful, what their baseline of play is, what they have to do on a nightly basis and what they’re relied upon to do for the team that they’re playing on. Then they expand it from there.

“Checkers, it’s not like they don’t want to score. They’re just focused on what they need to do to be successful. … He went through a phase and a season, really, where he was able to consistently chip in. But the main priority goes back to his identity and the role that he plays on our team.”

The NHL announced the salary cap ceiling for the 2026-27 season will be $104 million, which was the reported and projected number. That is an $8.5 million increase from this season, and the Avs have already committed a chunk of that space.

Here’s the good news: This Avalanche team looks primed for a run at the Stanley Cup, and nearly all of the key figures from this group are already under contract for next season. The biggest storyline entering the offseason doesn’t even involve a contract for next season.

Here’s the less good news: The Avs have precious little cap space available this offseason, unless a current regular under contract gets moved. And nearly $2.3 million for next year is gone because the bill for this roster went a little over the limit. It was legal because Brent Burns signed an incentive-laden one-year contract. That’s where the overage is from, but the Avs will be more than happy to work around that issue next year if this group keeps winning.

The Avs have 17 guys from the current roster under contract through 2027 or beyond. They have a little less than $3 million in cap space available, about $2.98 million, . There are four unrestricted free agents — Burns, Brett Kulak, Nick Blankenburg on defense, Joel Kiviranta at forward. Two forwards, Jack Drury and Zakhar Bardakov, are restricted free agents.

So yeah, the players, coaches and fans are all focused on this Avalanche team’s chase of a fourth championship in franchise history. But Chris MacFarland and his group in the front office always have one eye towards the future.

The 2026-27 team should look very similar to the one, especially if the Avs get past the Minnesota Wild and into the Western Conference Final or beyond.

Here are the biggest questions for the offseason, barring any significant injuries in the coming weeks:

Will Cale Makar sign a new megadeal?

Makar has one more year left on his contract, but that makes him eligible to sign a new deal starting July 1. The cap ceiling is expected to keep rising at unprecedented levels — to $113.5 million in the first year of Makar’s new contract and $123 million in the second season.

The maximum cap hit for the 2026-27 season is $20.8 million. But just for reference, by Year 2 of Makar’s new deal, if the ceiling is $123 million, the max cap hit that year will be $24.6 million (which, by the way, will be the first season of Connor McDavid’s next contract).

Nathan MacKinnon famously said the day after Mikko Rantanen was traded that Makar should get $20 million. There’s little question that he would be worth it. The best players in the world have always been underpaid in the salary cap era, from Sidney Crosby and Alex Ovechkin to MacKinnon and McDavid.

Kirill Kaprizov pushed the artificial ceiling on contracts to $17 million per year. Will Makar, or Quinn Hughes, who also has one year left, establish a new standard?

The Avs will want to get a deal done as soon as possible. Makar’s deal won’t have a huge effect on the 2026-27 team, though it could restrict which players the club might pursue to some extent.

Will they be able to keep Kulak?

Kulak has been a great fit. He’s also probably made himself some money this season, with another strong postseason after the previous two in Edmonton. He’ll also be 33 years old next year.

His current contract is at $2.75 million per year. If Kulak really wants to stay and was willing to take a shorter deal and at something close to that figure, the Avs can make it work by trading someone else. Could two or three years at $3.5-4 million work for both sides? Maybe.

But, given the amount of cap space other teams are going to have, and the dearth of quality free agents available, it’s also possible that another team would offer him double his current cap hit on a deal that will run into his late 30s. If that happens, the Avs would almost certainly have to thank him for this run and wish him luck.

Will they be able to keep Drury?

The Avs have other guys who could be the No. 4 center next year behind MacKinnon, Brock Nelson and Nazem Kadri. Nicolas Roy or Parker Kelly could play there. Bardakov could be given another shot at the role. And the Avs could reassess where things stand before the deadline.

But Drury is a really, really good No. 4 center. And he’s a restricted free agent, which means one outcome is the Avs bring him back on a one-year deal, and then he gets to test the open market the following summer. He does have arbitration rights, but Drury didn’t have great numbers this year. It’s harder to argue with intangibles and how much the coach loves you in an arbitration hearing.

If the Avs want to lock him into a longer deal, it would almost certainly mean another regular under contract has to leave. Drury does feel like the type of player who, if the Avs were to win the Cup, would be very in demand if the Avs decided to make him available in a trade.

Will Burns and the Avs want to run it back?

Burns will turn 42 next March. This could be his last ride. But … he’s played pretty well in a lesser role, been a huge hit in the dressing room and most of all, the guy just loves to play. If he does come back, he’ll also be able to take aim at Phil Kessel’s record ironman streak. He’s 57 (regular-season) games away.

If he wants to play, and the Avs want him back, a similar deal to this one (one year, $1 million-ish in salary with incentives) seems pretty easy to put together.

How will the Avs find some flexibility?

The Avs don’t have a bad contract on the books right now. And the longer they play in this tournament, the more the value of some of their players will rise. That could be an issue with trying to retain Kulak, or even Blankenburg if he gets an extended postseason look. But that does help if the Avs need to trade someone.

The most obvious someone is Ross Colton, who has played well since returning to the lineup but has had two snakebitten seasons in a row and was a healthy scratch to start the playoffs. He has one year left at $4 million, which is a fine number for a middle-six forward. And there could be plenty of teams interested in his services, if the Avs decided to prioritize Kulak or need to replace him. Colton could also be the odd man out if the Avs want to do a longer deal with Drury.