In politics, the saying goes that sometimes flat-lining sends a louder message than life support.
It may not be politics, but it’s almost official that the 2014-15 season has flat-lined for the Colorado Avalanche.
A team that defied all odds and logic en route a division title a season ago, Colorado’s loss to Edmonton on Monday night resigned even the most devout believers in the team to the fact that the Avs would not be making the playoffs this season.
Obviously, it’s a huge disappointment for fans and players alike, considering the early success under head coach Patrick Roy last year. But beneath the surface, this was a flawed team that had very little chance for serious contention this season. Truth be told, they had very little business competing the way they did in 2013-14. If not for an MVP-caliber season from goaltender Semyon Varlamov, and Roy himself pulling every string imaginable (correctly too, which is no small feat) to keep the team in games they had no business winning, Colorado may not have looked significantly different last year than they do now.
That may sound disheartening, but the Avalanche’s issues aren’t to say that there hasn’t been significant progress with the franchise over the last two seasons. There absolutely has been, especially at forward and in net. It is, however, to say that perhaps last year’s division title created unrealistic expectations for the team in 2014-15, considering the handcuffs they’d face in trying to revamp a depleted defensive corps with very little value on the open market last offseason.
Considering that market, Colorado actually did quite well in the creativity department by landing veteran Brad Stuart in exchange for a draft pick. That Stuart hasn’t quite worked out as well as the team had hoped shouldn’t diminish the effort that was put forward, and Stuart still places well above several other defensemen on the team’s roster. There simply wasn’t enough available to do the full job in one offseason.
So instead, Colorado went with another strategy: Get veteran leadership and get tougher.
Again, while people will point out that the acquisitions of Jarome Iginla, Danny Briere and the aforementioned Stuart didn’t help the team return to the playoffs, the idea itself was a sound one. If not for a combined 48 goals from Iginla and Alex Tanguay, the tone of this piece may have been a little more somber.
In fact, there’s reason to believe that missing the playoffs is one of the better things that could’ve happened to the Avalanche this season, if for no other reason than to make sure they focus on the issues at hand.
The Avs surrendered 32.7 shots per game in 2013-14, and then were inexplicably worse in the same category this season. They flailed through power plays and struggled through injuries in net that the team was simply unequipped to withstand. They needed defense, and will now get the opportunity to focus on that goal in the offseason.
Would they still have done that if they had made the postseason? Perhaps, but missing the playoffs this year was flat-lining, while making them would’ve been just enough life support to get them throttled in the first round again by a more complete team, leaving fans afterwards with the mixed feelings of “they just need a few adjustments” and “how could this happen again?”
This way, there is no doubt. The Avalanche need serious help on the back line, and there is nothing preventing them from seeing that. The team’s young core is solid and growing into their own every day, the veterans they’ve brought in have given the franchise leadership and production (for the most part), and the club seems set at goaltender for the foreseeable future.
If the Avalanche had made the playoffs, it would have served as further proof of Roy’s acumen as a head coach, but not much else. Colorado needs an overhaul on the blue line, and the message will never be clearer than it is right now.
