All I want for Christmas is our two top forwards
Our two top forwards
See our two top forwards
Gee, if only we had our two top forwards
Then we could win the Cup again.
The defending Stanley Cup Champions entered the 2022-23 season down two players due to injuries sustained in the playoffs: Darren Helm and captain Gabriel Landeskog. Both have yet to return to the lineup, and the injuries haven’t stopped there. Recently, the Avs had 11 players out with injuries. They only dress 20 players for a game, and 23 on an active roster, so with more than half our team out, Bednar has had to rely on calling up players from our minor team, the Colorado Eagles.
The most significant injury came on December 6th, when Nathon MacKinnon left the game with an upper-body injury and isn’t expected back until January. Since the speedster went down, the Avs have regained some strength in Valeri Nichushkin, Evan Rodrigues, and Kurtis MacDermid. However, the Avs have not scored more than three goals in a game since the loss of MacKinnon, who has 34 points in the 23 games he has played this year, and the absence of his skill is keenly apparent, particularly on power play opportunities. On Monday, the Avalanche won 1-0 in a shootout against the New York Islanders. The last time the Avs won a game 1-0 was in February 2020. Pre-pandemic! We have become accustomed to the high-scoring Avalanche, and watching a 0-0 game through overtime reminds us that the Avalanche are a different team now.
We currently are in the first wildcard playoff position with 38 points and trail the Central Division leader, the Dallas Stars, by eight points. A place we hardly expected to find ourselves in at the beginning of the season. However, it's only December, and the Avs have played 31 games, leaving another 51 games until playoff season. The team is slowly getting healthy. From down 11 players, the Avalanche currently have six injured players: Landeskog (knee), Helm (hip), MacKinnon (upper body), Bo Byram (lower body), Josh Manson (lower body), and Cogliano (shoulder). MacKinnon will hopefully be back early in the New Year, and while Landeskog likely won’t return closer till the end of January, there are positive takeaways from this challenging start to the year.
Last year, the Avs entered the playoffs with a healthy line-up, a feat that is often rare after a grueling 82-game regular season. If the Avalanche can learn how to win when missing some of their top performers, it will only benefit the team in the long run. Additionally, the amount Bednar has had to utilize younger players from the Eagles has given them a taste of the NHL competition compared to the AHL and will ultimately help their player development.
With Mac and Landy out, Mikko Rantanen is the last man standing from the top line that was so lethal the previous year. Mikko is clearly up to the challenge, with 22 goals and 40 points. While the team is not where we had hoped it would be at this point in the season, there is more than enough time for the Avs to return to the caliber we know they can play at. The key will be for the players to remain healthy after their injuries. And even though I know it will not happen, a girl can still dream for a Christmas miracle.