DENVER — Go Avs, go!
The Colorado Avalanche have earned a spot in the 2022 Stanley Cup Playoffs.
The Avalanche picked up two more points with a 6-4 win over the Pittsburgh Penguins Tuesday night. Colorado now has 106 points on the season and leads the Florida Panthers by two points for the NHL's President's Trophy, awarded to the team with the most regular season points.
> Video above is from the Locked On Avalanche Podcast about the Colorado Avalanche home winning streak in January.
In recent years the President's Trophy has seemed to carry a curse with it. Since 2000, only four of the trophy winners have gone on to win the Stanley Cup, and only one team has done it since 2010.
Eight of the trophy's winners since 2010 have failed to make it past the second round of the playoffs. This includes the 2018-19 Tampa Bay Lightning who were swept in the first round of the playoffs by the Columbus Blue Jackets. The Lightning would go on to win the next two Stanley Cups without winning the President's Trophy or even their own division.
Given Colorado's the offensive prowess this season, it is hard not to see similarities between this team and the Avalanche team that won the Cup in 2001
It is worth noting that the last time the Avalanche won Lord Stanley's cup, they did win the President's Trophy.
While Colorado's record in 2022 is impressive, it is how they are doing it that has many thinking back to the days of Joe Sakic, Ray Bourque and Patrick Roy.
Let's start with goaltending. In 2001, Roy recorded a career high for single season games won at 40. He also posted a .913 save percentage with a 2.22 goals against average.
By comparison, Darcy Kuemper currently has 33 wins with a .925 save percentage and a 2.40 goals against average. Neither goalie led the league in these categories for their respective seasons.
Next, let's look at goal scoring. Mikko Rantanen, Gabriel Landeskog and Nazem Kadri are currently the top three goal scorers for Colorado.
Both this year and in 2001, the Avalanche were one of the top two teams in the league for goal differential (+78 in 2001 and +75 so far this season).
Rantanen, Landeskog and Kadri have combined for 81 goals on the season through 70 games. In 2001, Sakic, Milan Hejduk and Peter Forsberg combined for 112 goals in 82 games.
I find it highly unlikely that this year's top trio will find 31 goals in 12 games. If they did, how awesome would that be?
That was goals, what about total offense? Sakic scored 118 points in 2001 (there is a reason he is in the Hall of Fame). 2001's top three registered 286 points that season.
This year, Rantanen, Kadri and Cale Makar had recorded 44 fewer points with 242, granted that is with 12 games to go this season.
It is clear that these two teams are not carbon copies of each other. One noticeable difference is the contributions this year's team is getting from the blue line.
Most notably, Makar has the third most points on Colorado's roster. In 2001, it was Bourque who was sixth on the list with 16 fewer points than Makar. Bourque was Colorado's most offensively productive defenseman that season, he was also 40-years-old at the time.
Similarities in numbers do not guarantee similar results in the postseason. However, Avalanche fans can't help but feel a sense of optimism when seeing the comparison.
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