Avalanche Enter Opening Night With Little Room for Error
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The Avalanche know what it has at the top of its lineup. What remains to be determined is whether the Avalanche have enough behind their stars. They are starting the season without much excess manpower, creating little margin for injuries, fatigue or underperformance.
Few NHL teams can match the talent of the Avalanche. Nathan MacKinnon, Cale Makar, Martin Necas, Gabriel Landeskog, Devon Toews, and Brock Nelson are why the Avalanche remain capable of competing with anybody. The bigger concern begins once you move farther down the lineup.
The Avalanche pared their roster down aggressively heading into the season. They currently sit at 20 players, which leaves them the minimum number of players necessary. That means the bottom six and third defensive pairing become especially important.
An injury doesn't necessarily have to happen to MacKinnon or Makar to hurt the team. Losing a third-line forward or depth defenseman could force the Avalanche to immediately shuffle combinations or summon help.
T.J. Hughes' preseason performance forced the Avalanche to take notice, highlighted by his hat trick and four-point performance against the Winnipeg Jets. His emergence represents that Colorado needs inexpensive players from outside its established core to become legitimate contributors.
Hughes earning an opportunity is encouraging, but now comes the real test. Producing during the exhibition season is one thing. Providing dependable NHL minutes when the games count is another.
The Avalanche aren't constructing a roster just to survive October. They're trying to remain healthy and effective through April and hopefully play another two months after that.
The stars can carry team for stretches, but asking them to continually compensate for deficiencies deeper down the lineup becomes much more difficult over 84 games. That makes early performances from the depth players that much more important.
The Avalanche's championship aspirations will ultimately revolve around MacKinnon and Makar. They have repeatedly shown they can drive the Avalanche through tough parts of the season, and the rest of the established group gives them a foundation that is pretty much second to none.
A season rarely goes according to plan and now with an extra two games added to the mix this year, that leaves very little room for error or injuries. That is why the Avalanche's supporting cast could be just as important as the names at the top of the lineup.
If players like Hughes can emerge as dependable contributors, the 20-man roster may prove sufficient. If not, the Avalanche could quickly discover how fast their fortunes can change.
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Jason Fink is an NHL writer and lifelong hockey fan who fell in love with the game when he watched Wayne Gretzky’s Edmonton Oilers defeat the Philadelphia Flyers in the 1987 Stanley Cup Final. When he’s not writing, Jason enjoys spending time with his wife Michelle and their son Theo and daughter Stella. Whether he’s following the latest NHL news or cheering from the rink, his passion for the sport has been a constant throughout his life.