This is WAY better than we thought... | Colorado Avalanche News

The Colorado Avalanche have been way better than we have initially expected them to be after the trade deadline and as someone who had sky-high expectations already, I have been blown away by how much this team has been rolling thanks to the new additions and the center depth which have just kept this team rolling through all four lines. Each center is great in their own right and has contributed to this team's success overall. We're going to get into the reasons as to why that's all true and the hidden reasons as to why that's helping every player on the ice right now, but before we do don't forget to subscribe. So you don't miss a thing coming out of this wonderful channel. It's great over here. We're cool guys, and let's get right into it. All right. So as you know, I love using this image. This is our current lineup right now. I mean, and if you have a lineup like this, why wouldn't you I mean, honestly, it's just amazing. It is the best center depth in the league right now, hands down. I mean, obviously you have the star center of Nathan McKinnon. You have just the amazing two-way forward of Brock Nelson. Same is true for Charlie Coyle, just a big physical center. And then Jack Drury, who's always making a great play every game is a great face-off guy as well. And him right next to Kelly and O'Connor is a great fourth line shutdown line in of itself. But truly to really understand how far this lineup has come. This is the best lineup since the 2022 season. It's not it's and that's a pretty high bar because that team went and won the cup. So if that's what you're comparing it to I I'd say we're pretty set for a playoff run here. But I wanted to point out just how good this is and how blessed we are to get this after a few seasons of just injury and turmoil and just not having as deep of a team. Now, if you take a look at this right here, this is the projected lineup for the 22-23 season. And unfortunately, this is a lineup that never got to come to fruition. Landis Cogg never played on this team. Darren Helm was never healthy. You got JT Comper on the third line next to I believe Evan Rodriguez and Ivan Rodriguez never got to play on that third line like originally intended and Alex Newhook never panned out as the 2C. I mean this team was always going to be weak at center, but unfortunately, it was just even worse than that with all the injuries and basically this lineup is nothing more than a fan fiction because it never got healthy and this 22-23 season lineup, honestly with 2020 vision and the hubris of being out of the moment removed of like, oh, no, of course, we're going to win. If you showed this to me today, I'd be like, oh, absolutely. They're not going back to back. I mean this this lineup is kind of pathetic and of course compare that to the magic of today's lineup. It's it's night and day. This team would blow that other team out of the water compare it to earlier this season. This is the projected lineup for game two of this season the home opener and you have of course, there's injuries here too, but you have Kovalenko top line Richie Callum Richie on this on the top six as well and Ross Colton. You got to remember our Tory Larkin and was injured at the beginning of the season. The Chushkin was suspended and Jonathan Druin unfortunately got injured after game one. You had three top six forwards immediately missing your center depth was Nathan McKinnon Casey Middlestat when he was actually playing well, so what it wasn't that bad then Parker Kelly at 3C and then Ivan Ivan at your 4C now Parker Kelly has been freed. He doesn't have to play center anymore. He's back on wing and you have Charlie Coyle and you have Ivan Ivan and Ross Colton is allowed to play his natural position to wing next to Charlie Coyle. So that's already just set both of Kelly and Colton in better positions because now they're free to play wing and it shows they're flying around Ross Colton is skating. He looks super fast and that was something that people were saying about him like, oh, he's not the fastest skater. So he's going to have to adjust to being an out. He looks perfect out there. He looks like one of the fastest guys out there. I was surprised watching him against that Kings game. It was it was uncanny. But yeah, and really this was after the trade deadline. This was kind of the the invigorated lineup of last season to try and go in and win the cup and unfortunately with Logan O'Connor out and Jonathan Druin also being out for those the first few games of the playoffs. You had Zach Parise playing in the top six. I mean Ross Colton as you see was the 3C. You had Yoel Kibiranta and Myles Wood on that line. And honestly again, the center depth was just not as strong and neither was the wing depth at all. I mean this this avalanche iteration as it is right now with the current lineup is better than anything else. The ads have had in the last three seasons. It is just so powerful. It is so flexible. I mean you see Martin Neches. I'm going to bring up a cute photo of him right here. He got the big hat loss last game to goal game against the LA Kings just looks great next to Brock Nelson. I mean he can fly up down the lineup. He can play with anybody plays next to Brock Nelson and those two pair off really well next together. I mean the lineup is become so versatile and who you can pair with who Nichushkin can be next to McKinnon. He can be against to Brock Nelson. He can be next to pretty much anybody and it works all the same and let's talk about Brock Nelson. I mean, he's such a dynamic player. And really he's very deceptive and how good he is. He has a deceptive shot you scores and you're like, oh the goalie should have had that one. But really he does that to goalies all the time. He's just able to just get it off. So well pick an angle and really make the goalie pay. He also holds on to the puck very well. He's a big frame at six foot three. I believe and because of that he's able to make good plays keep the puck in his stick. I mean, you'll see right there. He just scored. He did that very similar against the Ottawa Senators a few games ago with the ABS. I mean, he just finds those little angles where he can slip the pocket and it works out so well for him. You saw right there. He's battling out in front from his knees. He scores. He is such a versatile player and adding like someone like that to your second line center bringing in a guy like Martin Neches or Arturi Lekanen or Valeriy Nechushkin or Jonathan Druin even can play all play right next to that guy. I think Brock Nelson even said he had high praise for Lekanen last game. I mean, I think he was pretty much basically said in simple words. Yeah, I really really like Arturi Lekanen. I mean, I mean and everyone does because Lekanen is great, but he really is just such a great heart and soul guy too. I mean, he's kind of the uncle in that locker room right now. I'm sure they're all teasing him because of his age, but really he's just such a great guy to have on the team in general. Just adds a whole nother bit of depth. We saw multiple times in this stretch when McKinnon or the top line or Kahle McCarr were kind of going a little cold and they weren't carrying games like normal. No problem because the bottom nine were absolutely just picking up the slack and that's something we have not seen from the abs in years and that's just so amazing to see for this team and has very good implications when it comes to the playoffs and how much damage they can do when maybe the top guys are getting singled out. McKinnon is probably getting shut down by the best shutdown lines the other team has. I mean, if you're playing Dallas, they're doing everything they can just slow him down and make sure he can't create. So while they're, you know, throwing everything at the wall to try and suppress Nathan McKinnon, the next guy who hops over the boards is Brock Nelson's line and Dallas is, you know, bailing out to stop Nathan McKinnon and then they've got Brock Nelson coming down the wings. They've got Brock Nelson, maybe Valeria Chushkin. They might have, yeah, Martin Netjes as well to try and, you know, spread the wealth a little bit. So it's easier to score. So then they come right up the ice and score too. So then all that defensive work they did is null and void and it's just going to be so hard to contain this high-flying avalanche team. But I also wanted to point out something, a little bit of the avs news and that's that Landis Kog is still skating and looking even better. This comes courtesy of Evan Wall from the Gazette. Landis Kog just scored an absurd goal where he went in between the legs around wood, kicked it to a stick and beat Wedgewood while falling down. Now, I think I've literally seen Landis Kog score these insane goals multiple times in his career, but it's so great to see that he's doing it in practice and having fun and also kind of playing physical. That's a good sign. But also, yeah, Jared Bednar said, according to my numbers, the last 10 games we've had the lowest defensive zone turnover rate in the league. It's more than just the D's job. These centers really help. Getting in and out of the zone is the best way to play defense. And that's absolutely true. The best offense is a good defense, suppressing everyone in the neutral zone. And that's what Charlie Coyle does. That's what Nelson does. That's what Parker, that's what Jack Drury does. I mean, it's so great to have just your middle six, your bottom nine center depth, really doing all of that work to help the top line fly even more. So it's an absolute dream to have a lineup like this. And really, when Landis Kog comes back, that left wing issue that you have is pretty much fixed. Realistically, a lot of stuff happens in the cup run where a lot of guys go down. A lot of guys get injured. It happened in the last ABS Cup run. You had Dinshushkin's foot, which was like in half. You had Burakovsky miss several games. You had Dawson Cawdry miss several games. I mean, it was definitely a grind towards the end there. But luckily, I think that this Avalanche lineup is built to take a few injuries and keep going. Realistically, you should be able to take at least two injuries and still be effective. So you imagine a top six winger injury gets injured. Okay. Well, Ross Colton most likely is the next man to move up and take that spot. After that, probably a maybe a Kiviranta. Depends on how much you want to switch up the lineup, but you would even and then you would even have like center depth insurance there as well. So if God forbid, Nelson gets injured, you'd have Charlie Coyle slot up. If Charlie Coyle gets injured, you would most likely have Jack Drury slot up. If Jack Drury gets injured, well, guess what? Parker Kelly also played some centers, so he'd slot up too. So it's you just have a lot of of versatility in your lineup to do that with. And unfortunately, if three guys get injured, gets injured in that in that series, you're probably not going to win that series. That's just kind of how it goes, especially if it's all top six guys. Yeah, I don't know what else to tell you other than we're not making it out of that series. But really, I think this this lineup is poised for a Stanley Cup. I've never felt so confident before and I am so excited to get this playoff run going and I will be covering it every step of the way. Can't wait to see you guys there. Thank you for watching. Don't forget to comment and subscribe. Have a good one.