What Went Wrong: Abdicated

This really hurts.

This was not an easy season for the Colorado Avalanche. The offseason was epic. We were the Stanley Cup Champions. That is the most amazing feeling in sports--being the team that ended up with the greatest and most prestigious trophy in sports. We Avalanche fans spent the entire offseason celebrating that Cup and drinking in the fact that we were at the top of the heap, the Head of the Table, or to borrow from The Flintstones, "the Grand High Poobah." It was an absolutely wonderful feeling, but it was back to work.

That's where the problems began.

For starters, we received the crippling news that our captain, Gabriel Landeskog, would be out for the entire season. The campaign would see the Avs scratch and claw through injuries, whether it was Nathan MacKinnon or Cale Makar, or Valeri Nichushkin. Somehow, despite all of these hardships, the Avs managed to get back on track at the right time, capitalizing on both the Dallas Stars and Minnesota Wild faltering, and managed to capture the Central Division on the very last day of the season.

However, what resulted was a short-lived, disastrous, and heartbreaking run, as the Avalanche fell in seven games to a Seattle Kraken team that was in their second year of existence, was in their first postseason, and had a goalie who was out for payback. So what went wrong for the team who was looking to repeat? I won't say injuries. I refuse to say injuries. The Avs are a team who has risen above injuries before. We could have done it again.

Officiating was definitely a problem. Refs refused to call things against Seattle, and the league showed their bias when Cale Makar was suspended for a relatively clean hit, yet Jordan Eberle broke Andrew Cogliano's neck and there wasn't even a hearing. Other missed calls against the Kraken affected games, too, but that was only part of the entire problem.

The Avs usually rose above things like that. Last year, we definitely did. This year? Not so much.

Love Mikko Rantanen. Love this guy. Here's a man who had to lead the pack with both of his Top Line mates out at some point, and boy, did he get the job done. 55 goals in the regular season, just two shy of the Nordiques/Avalanche franchise record. In the playoffs: seven goals in seven games. Thank goodness that the man known as "The Moose" has a Cup, but it would have been nice to have repeated and won another one for him. He led the charge in the regular season, and he did it again in this very short run.

The only player who comes close to matching or even surpassing Sidney Crosby's abilities is his buddy, Nathan MacKinnon. I will stand by that statement no matter what. However, I think there was something different about Mack in this year's playoffs. Last year, Mack was hangry. He was pissed over 2021 and was on a mission that year. This year, well, while Mack wanted a second one, it didn't seem like the hunger was there, but he definitely tried his damnedest: three goals, four assists, seven points total. To me, he's the modern day Joe Sakic, that's without question.

As I said before, the team was riddled with injuries, and calls were heavily against us, but the main problem was that the Avs just couldn't really rise above it. Last year, we would have. It sucks, it really does, but that's the way the puck bounces. One more thing. The one thing that makes it less heartbreaking is last year. The Avs reached the top last year, which means that this team can do it again. The offseason will be an interesting one, but one thing's for sure: the Avalanche will be back in full form next season, and we will be looking to get back to the top!

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