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The Colorado Avalanche are likely suffering from a crushing feeling after dropping Game 7 to the Minnesota Wild 5-4 in overtime on Wednesday. Depending upon whom you ask, they might feel a lot like the Dallas Stars did when their season ended with a painful loss; blowing a lead in an elimination game hurts, yet many feel like the future is exceedingly bright for the Avalanche.
- Change was in the air in a wide variety of ways for the Avalanche ... and it seems like those changes came up in Colorado’s favor in just about every way.
- Patrick Roy’s first season as an NHL head coach was a smash success. The Avs went from cellar dwellers to the second-best team in the West and won the brutal Central Division under his tutelage. There was rarely a dull moment, either, whether he was clashing with Bruce Boudreau or inspiring other head coaches (including Boudreau) to empty their nets early in desperate playoff situations. It’s no surprise to see that he’s in the running for the Jack Adams Award.
- New executive Joe Sakic seemed to press all the right buttons. Hiring Roy was maybe more obvious, but he made the tough choice of drafting Nathan MacKinnon first overall over fantastic choices such as Seth Jones. The Nashville Predators defenseman looks promising, but MacKinnon looks primed to run away with the Calder Trophy and capped that fantastic regular season with playoff performances that left the likes of Jeremy Roenick highly impressed.
- The future is bright beyond MacKinnon’s obvious presence: they have other budding stars under 23 including including Matt Duchene, Gabriel Landeskog and Ryan O’Reilly.
- They do need to make decisions about re-signing the likes of O’Reilly and Paul Stastny, but Semyon Varlamov looks primed to be their franchise goalie after a turbulent season. Varlamov put together a Vezina-caliber campaign even as legal issues cropped up (and then charges were dropped).
Things won’t be easy for the Avalanche. Many believe that the team got a lot of lucky bounces and rode a goaltending run that Varlamov will struggle to match in 2014-15. Then again, if Sakic and Roy continue to push the right buttons while this team’s enviable group of young stars continues to improve, this could easily just be a tough learning experience for a future NHL power.