Avalanche have chance to join elusive club – but do they want to?
The Colorado Avalanche have long since clinched the top spot in the Central Division, the Western Conference, and the Presidents’ Trophy. Star center Nathan MacKinnon has virtually locked up the Maurice “Rocket” Richard Trophy as this season’s leading goal scorer. As a result, you might think the Avalanche have nothing to play for in Thursday’s regular season finale against the Seattle Kraken. But Colorado does have one more milestone they can aim for… if they want it.
With 119 points through 81 games, Colorado is a point away from becoming just the seventh team since 2000 to achieve at least 120 points in a season. While that would certainly be an impressive accomplishment, the playoff record of the other teams in that club is not something the Avalanche are looking to emulate, as they all suffered early exits from the postseason.
On Thursday’s episode of Daily Faceoff LIVE, hosts Tyler Yaremchuk and former NHL goaltender Carter Hutton discussed the tortured playoff history of the NHL’s more recent 120-point teams.
Tyler Yaremchuk: Each of the last six teams in the NHL to break 120 points in the regular season, none of them made it past the second round, and four of the six lost out in the first round of the playoffs. What do you think that kind of says? Is there a comment there about teams not facing adversity, and not being in “playoff mode” in the final six weeks of the regular season? Is there anything there, or is it just a weird statistical anomaly?
Carter Hutton: I do think there’s something there. It’s about playing it at the right time. On the flip side of that I think about the Columbus Blue Jackets running out of gas, and not being able to sustain that. It’s always my argument to non-hockey people, when they’re like “I only want to watch playoff hockey because it’s faster, or the Olympics. What if every game was like this?” There’s no sustainability in that. You wouldn’t have a team, your whole team would be hurt. There’s no way of doing it. Cranking it up on demand is tricky, but then also trying to sustain the way you’ve played. I think there is that happy medium, and I look at a few of these teams that have been winning as of late, trending in the right direction, like the Sens and like a few other teams in the league, that’s where it’s important, where you’ve already found your identity, there’s a trust framework where you’re feeding off each other.