Avalanche Fine Tuning in Remainder of Regular Season

The Colorado Avalanche are going about their business.
Following a commanding 7-4 win over the Carolina Hurricanes on Saturday night at Ball Arena, the Avalanche officially clinched possession of the top seed in the Western Conference. The victory also extended the team's winning streak to nine games and furthered its' point streak to 11 games (10-0-1).

Throughout this stretch of dominant hockey from the Avalanche, who rank first overall in the league with a 55-14-6 record and 116 points, the team has been using each remaining regular-season game to fine-tune their details and poise themselves for the best possible outcome come the postseason. To add to their recent successes, they've been generating favorable results against high-caliber, playoff-hopeful opponents and have done so without the likes of captain Gabriel Landeskog, forward Nazem Kadri and defenseman Ryan Murray.

"It's about the process and using the regular season to develop the habits that we need to be successful come playoff time," Avalanche Head Coach Jared Bednar said following the win over Carolina. "We'll win a game that we don't play that well in or that we don't defend that well in. Say it's 5-4 or whatever the score is, our guys will be in the room afterwards and they'll be a little bit disappointed in our game. I like that. It shows that we're raising the bar and setting a higher standard than in years past. Not that we didn't try to do that in years past, but I just think it's the growth of our team and leadership."
And after three-straight seasons of being eliminated in the Second Round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs, the Avalanche haven't sugarcoated the disappointment. Instead, they've used the sting and stun of defeat as the ultimate motivator for this season.
"You have to keep working at it," Bednar said. "We've had a little bit of heartache. I think that helps drive home the points. We've been disappointed in the playoffs for a couple of years now for a couple of different reasons. Last year was the one that really stung for me because it was about our play. We didn't have any injuries. We didn't have anything going on. It was our play that wasn't good enough at the most important time of the year."
Saturday night's performance was a prime example of the emanating tenacity of this Colorado squad. Against the Hurricanes, who boast a 48-20-8 record and 104 points tied with Toronto for the second most in the Eastern Conference and third most in the league, the Avalanche put on a full-team clinic as they became the first team since the 1995-96 season to record nine or more games with seven or more goals scored. There was some vengeance on Colorado's part after being shut out 2-0 - for the first and only time this season - by Carolina on March 10.
So, in Saturday's redemption game, the Avalanche received scoring from the entirety of their lineup - including from Ben Meyers, who scored in his NHL debut - dominated the special teams battle with a 2-for-5 execution on the power play against Carolina's top-ranked penalty kill, benefited from Darcy Kuemper's sharp netminding and 29-save performance, all while never allowing the Hurricanes to trim their deficit any closer than by a two-goal margin.
"When they scored those couple of goals to bring it back 4-2, we felt our game was good," Bednar said as he explained an instance where Nathan MacKinnon - who scored twice in the win and now has nine goals in his last six games - made a comment to keep the bench calm and composed, despite the push from Carolina.

"Our team has a confidence about us," Bednar continued. "We know that if our competitive level is where it needs to be and that we're skating and engaged physically, we feel like we can play with anybody. We should have confidence about that. There's certainly a maturity of our group over the last couple of years of staying more poised and playing our game. When another team pushes we have to push back. We can't just let them take over the game. We've seen that a lot in third periods this year in close games."
Even as frustrations boiled over in the third period from the Hurricanes, the Avalanche stuck to their disciplined and detailed game plan as they focused on the task at hand which was to collect another crucial two points in the standings all for the end goal of trying to claim their first overall seed heading into the postseason.
As impressive as the team's victory was against the high-powered, deep Carolina squad, the manner in which Colorado executed its meticulous performance with high stakes on the line was admirable as the group displayed an evident evolution of maturity.
"We're still trying to win and trying to set ourselves up and put us in the perfect position," Devon Toews said. "We're still learning. We're learning more about ourselves every game, about our team, about what we like to do, how we like to play. A lot of these close games that we've had lately against really good teams has helped us a lot. That's what it's going to be like in the playoffs. Every night it's going to be like that. Just the way we're able to handle those games and stay calm. Last year, our emotions would take over a little bit, but this year we're a lot calmer, we're more relaxed. We're comfortable in those games being up a goal or down a goal. Having to press or sit back a little more can be uncomfortable, but we're getting more comfortable in those situations."