The Colorado Avalanche currently sit seven points out of the final playoff position in the Western Conference with 12 games remaining on their schedule and a game in hand on all of the other teams jockeying for the final playoff spots. The club was written off by many in February, but has surged back into the playoff race by winning 11 of their last 15 outings. The Avs still have an extremely difficult task at hand and they will need to have some luck on their side if they are going to jump three teams and steal a playoff spot. Here are five reasons the Avalanche can accomplish the task:
Semyon Varlamov
Varlamov has put the team on his back and been nothing short of spectacular down the stretch for the Avalanche. The workhorse netminder started 25 of the last 26 games, missing just one contest with a groin issue. He’s won 11 of his last 14 starts – including a current career-long, six-game winning streak in which he’s allowed just seven goals with a .963 save percentage. Putting all the expectation on Varlamov is unreasonable, but the 26-year-old carried the Avalanche into the playoffs last year with a Vezina Trophy runner-up season. Pundits pointed to his unworldly numbers as a reason the Avs would regress and miss the playoffs this year, but Varly is back to playing at the top of his game and is duplicating last season’s impressive statistics. On the season, he’s 25-17-7 with a .922 save percentage and a career-high five shutouts. Varlamov is going to have to steal at least a couple games down the stretch, but he’s proven time and time again that he is more than capable of doing just that.
Special Teams
The Avs’ penalty kill has been locking opposing team’s power plays down. They’ve only allowed one goal on their last 28 kills and two in their last 36 kills. It’s not a coincidence that the penalty kill and Varlamov are red-hot at the same time, as goalie’s are regularly team’s most important penalty killers. At 84.4 percent on the season, Colorado’s penalty kill ranks seventh in the league. The club’s power play, on the other hand, ranks 29th in the league at just 13.7 percent. They have to be better than that and they have been lately – tallying five goals in seven games on 20 power play chances (25 percent) in the month of March. If the Avs’ special teams keeps clicking, the wins and points will keep rolling in.
The impending return of Erik Johnson
Johnson is closing in on a return to the lineup after undergoing a knee scope on Jan. 26, as first reported by Mike Chambers of the Denver Post. The Avalanche have been without their top defenseman for 22 games, and he will miss at least one more, but might be able to return for Monday’s meeting with the Calgary Flames. “Right now he’s doing really well,” head coach Patrick Roy told Chambers. “When is he going to be back? I would say his return is pretty close.” Johnson was having a career season before the surgery. He was the Avs’ only All-Star selection and has a career-high 12 goals and 23 points in 47 games this season. Reintegrating Johnson into the a lineup that has been winning without him could be enough to push the Avs over the top.
The Captain
After a slow start to the season, Gabriel Landeskog has been leading by example with scorching hot play down the stretch as he tries to push the Avalanche to the playoffs for the second straight season. The Avs’ young captain has 10 goals and 19 points in his last 17 outings. In that time, he has registered two game-winning goals, five power play points, and a plus-3 rating while playing over 20 minutes per contest. Prior to heating up, Landeskog had just 10 goals in the Avs’ first 53 games. He essentially became a different player overnight and his team has responded by following his lead and finding ways to win games. Even though Landeskog is in his fourth season with the Avs and his third as the captain, it’s important to remember that the Sweden native is still just 22 years old.
Resiliency
Refusing to give up is nothing new to the Avalanche, who have fought to the last second when the odds were stacked against them all season. The club has erased multiple goal deficits to earn points on nine different occasions. Of those comebacks, six occurred in the third period. In conjunction, the Avs have scored six times in the closing minutes with the goalie pulled this season – earning at least a point in four of those games and winning two of them. The Avs have been a resilient bunch of cardiac kids all season, why would they give up now?
Nathan is a staff writer for Mile High Sports. He can be reached on Twitter at @TheRealNatron.
