The motto that underscored the Colorado Avalanche’s magical run to the 2022 Stanley Cup championship was “Find a Way,” and Gabe Landeskog echoed a similar sentiment on Tuesday morning.
The Avalanche enter Wednesday’s game against the San Jose Sharks as the NHL’s top team, carrying a 16-1-5 record through 21 games. Having just one regulation loss at this stage of the season is almost unheard of—usually that’s a cliché, but in this case it’s fact. This level of dominance has been achieved only four times in the past 97 years. What we’re witnessing is historic.
And yet, there’s still room for improvement. The power play remains the one area of this team that could use a reset. But it’s early in the season, and the Avalanche are dominant enough right now that it makes sense for them to experiment with a few ideas.
Science Experiment: Power Play Edition
Beginning with this past weekend’s road series against the Nashville Predators and the Chicago Blackhawks, the Avalanche began experimenting by moving Landeskog onto the first power play unit in place of Victor Olofsson. Landeskog told The Hockey News how he felt the group performed over those two games.
“The power play is one of the things we continue to work on,” he stated. “We’re understanding where we’re at; we’re understand that if our power play can start chipping in goals on a nightly basis, obviously that makes a big difference.”
But this Avalanche team has repeatedly demonstrated that even on nights when they lack their sharpest form, they still manage to manufacture wins. With that in mind, Landeskog remains confident that the group will eventually solve its power play issues.
“It’s early on in the season; we’re working on a few things and trying a couple different looks. It’s one of the things when it’s not working, it’s easy to start overthinking it, start pointing fingers, try to re-invent the wheel, but at the end of the day, sometimes you just got to stick with it.
“Sometimes there are tweaks to be made we make them no problem, but I think the power play is kind of the same as the rest of our game as we continue to work on it; we’re going to find ways (to succeed), and I’m not worried about it.”
Find a way, eh? What does remind of you of? We have an idea.
The Avalanche (16–1–5) have recorded 13 power-play goals this season, converting at a 15.7 percent clip—a rate that places them in a four-way tie for 15th in the NHL alongside the Montreal Canadiens, New Jersey Devils, and St. Louis Blues.
Game Time
Colorado dropped a 3–2 overtime decision to the San Jose Sharks in their previous meeting on October 1 at SAP Center. Tonight, the Avalanche have an opportunity to even the season series on home ice at Ball Arena. Coverage begins at 7 p.m. local time.
For action-packed issues, access to the entire magazine archive and a free issue, subscribe to The Hockey News at THN.com/free. Get the latest news and trending stories by subscribing to our newsletter here. And share your thoughts by commenting below the article on THN.com or creating your own post in our community forum.