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It’s Colorado Avalanche Day at PHT

Minnesota Wild v Colorado Avalanche - Game Five

DENVER, CO - APRIL 26: Nathan MacKinnon #29 of the Colorado Avalanche celebrates his game winning overtime goal with Gabriel Landeskog #92 of the Colorado Avalanche to defeat the Minnesota Wild 4-3 in Game Five of the First Round of the 2014 NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs at Pepsi Center on April 26, 2014 in Denver, Colorado. The Avalanche hold a 3-2 game lead in the series. (Photo by Doug Pensinger/Getty Images)

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Throughout the month of August, PHT will be dedicating a day to all 30 NHL clubs. Today’s team? The Colorado Avalanche.

For more entries in this series, click here.

Last season’s Colorado Avalanche did something for the City of Denver that hadn’t happened in a while: They brought fun and excitement on ice back to the Rockies.

The Avs were the surprise team in the Western Conference as they beat out the St. Louis Blues and Chicago Blackhawks to win the Central Division with 112 points. With Patrick Roy behind the bench for his first season in the NHL, he won the Jack Adams Award leading the team to 52 wins. With Joe Sakic running the show in the front office, it felt like the year 2000 all over again.

On the ice, Colorado’s offensive attack was something to behold.

Matt Duchene led the team in scoring with 70 points. Ryan O’Reilly led the team in goals with 28, and captain Gabriel Landeskog was a dual-threat with 26 goals and 65 points. Calder Trophy winner Nathan MacKinnon was a revelation scoring 24 goals with 63 points. All told, the Avs had five players with 60 or more points (Paul Stastny was the other). Defenseman Erik Johnson spurred the offense from the blue line with 39 points as well.

In goal, Semyon Varlamov was brilliant on the ice. He finished second in Vezina Trophy voting to Tuukka Rask, but had a .927 save percentage after facing a league-high 2,013 shots and had a 2.70 goals-against average.

Wait, how did a team that do so well allow over 2,000 shots on goal? Oh right... The defense.

The Avs were not darlings of the advanced statistic community for their lack of ability to possess the puck and their great talent at giving up tons of shots. Without Varlamov’s brilliance, things would’ve been much worse. While they had Johnson producing offense, guys like Cory Sarich, Nate Guenin, Nick Holden, Tyson Barrie, Andre Benoit, Ryan Wilson, and Jan Hejda made up a virtual no-name corps that struggled to slow down opponents.

Getting bounced by the Minnesota Wild in seven games in the first round showed off their defense as their Achilles’ Heel for all it was worth. Despite all the offensive and goaltending brilliance, apparently defense still wins championships. Or at the very least a playoff round or two.

Offseason recap

The Avs saw Paul Stastny depart for the St. Louis Blues on a four-year, $28 million deal. On the upside, they got a two-year deal done with O’Reilly after some rather collar-tightening negotiations.

Up front, they added Jarome Iginla on a three-year contract and dealt P.A. Parenteau to the Montreal Canadiens in exchange for Daniel Briere. A veteran presence amongst the forwards should help out, especially with Iginla still having plenty in the tank after scoring over 30 for Boston last season. They also added Jesse Winchester to help out the bottom-six.

One area they didn’t really address was the defense. The Avs acquired Brad Stuart from the San Jose Sharks and added depth guys in Bruno Gervais and Zach Redmond. Losing Benoit to Buffalo and Matt Hunwick to the New York Rangers won’t hurt them, they haven’t improved the back end.

They’d better hope Varlamov kept his off-ice activities to a minimum in the offseason because it’s shaping up to be another busy year in Denver.

Follow @JoeYerdonPHT