Avalanche Must Shore up Special Teams in Home Stretch

The Colorado Avalanche’s special teams have been a two-sided coin this season, and it’s been a topic of discussion about why it affects the team heading into the playoffs and their dreams of another Stanley Cup.

On one side, it’s the penalty kill, which has been a staple of this team this entire season. Despite a little “skid” you could say recently, the penalty kill still sits third in the NHL at 82.8% while allowing the sixth-lowest shots on goal per game at 26.1. Though they have the lowest amount of short-handed goals (1) this season.

On the other side is the power play, a staple topic this entire season, with the team struggling to generate any chances, including the new bodies acquired at the trade deadline, to try to improve results. The team currently has the third-lowest power play in the league at 16.5%, only higher than the Philadelphia Flyers and the Calgary Flames. It also doesn’t help that the Avalanche currently leads the league in most shorthanded goals allowed (12).

Avalanche Cannot Hide Flaws Against League’s Best

Avalanche Cannot Hide Flaws Against League’s Best The Colorado Avalanche’s season-long defensive cracks and top-heavy scoring have left them exposed, and with the playoffs looming, systemic failures—not injuries—threaten their once insurmountable lead.

Though despite some outliers coming out of the 2026 Milan Olympic break, the special teams have seen a change and for the better, and if this trend continues, which it must if the team wants to succeed, this current showing could be a sign of things to come as the regular season comes down to the final stretch.

Excluding injuries and the previous trade deadline additions, there was never any reason this power play should be in the bottom five of the league, especially when this team has finished with a power play percentage over 20% in the past five seasons. Since the 2021-22 season, each team has finished with a power-play percentage over 24%.

With 13 games left in the regular season, it’s gonna take a miracle and stats I can’t even comprehend to get their percentage chance to jump by eight percent, but they can still show signs of improving it, which they have been doing.

From the start of the season to the last day before the Olympic break, the Avalanche had 179 power-play opportunities and scored 27 of them. From their first game back from the Olympics to their last game against the Washington Capitals, they have had 48 power-play opportunities and scored 10. In 28 games, the Avalanche could end up scoring more than half, or even reach the 27-goal mark they achieved in 55 games.

A crucial factor of this season has been the penalty kill. Yes, the 5-on-5 scoring has made up for much of the power-play production, but defense wins championships. Even though the 2021-22 Stanley Cup team had a 79.66% penalty kill heading into the playoffs, it finished with an 80.4%, which led to a championship.

The Avalanche has something here, and despite missing one of their best weapons on the penatly kill, that being Logan O’Connor, which should be making his debut any day as he hs been ramping up on the practices, skating, and traveling with the team, he on top of the addition to Nicolas Roy help make a diverse collection of players Head Coach Jared Bednar can deploy in his two units.

Avalanche Could Get Logan O’Connor Back Sooner Than You Think Logan O’Connor participated in morning skate on Tuesday.

The month of March has been a bit shaky for the penalty kill, 32 opportunities given and seven capitalized on, but that also comes with the discipline of taking that many penalties.

Five against the Capitals, four against the Edmonton Oilers, four against the Stars, four against the Minnesota Wild. You can blame the officiating all you want, and I agree there were some bad calls, but the team is both lucky to know they have a really good system set up to kill those, and needs to keep their discipline high going forward.

The playoffs are a different breed when it comes to making the most of opportunities, such as a penalty kill or a power play. Last season in the playoffs against the Stars, 22 power-play opportunities were given, and only 3 goals were scored. The Stars saw 23 power-play opportunities and scored on seven of them. Penalties, good and bad, will be called on both teams; it’s up to the Avalanche to capitalize on those calls by either scoring on the power play or killing the penalty.

The Avalanche, if they want to go far, are going to face teams that don’t have a good penalty kill, like if they secure first and face a wild card team like the Seattle Kraken or the Los Angeles Kings, who sit in the bottom five in the penalty kill. In the same breath, they most likely are going to face one or more of the Stars, Wild, and Oilers, who sit in the top-10 in power play.

The Avalanche will need this stretch of hockey to confirm if their special teams are up for another deep Stanley Cup run, or more questions and concerns will be raised this summer if they aren’t.

Nelson Heats Up as Avalanche Strengthen Central Division Grip With key goals in back-to-back games, Nelson’s renewed scoring touch is helping Colorado widen its division lead.