Avalanche to use 2026 Olympics as motivator entering Stanley Cup Playoffs

The Colorado Avalanche enter the Stanley Cup Playoffs with plenty of talent and even more motivation to be the last team standing.

“End goal (is) the same: gotta win,” Avalanche coach Jared Bednar said recently.

The goal may be the same, but this regular season, which saw Colorado finish with the best record in the NHL (55-16-11 ), was certainly different. It had many twists and turns and events that will drive each player differently to help the team reach its goal, particularly when it comes to Avalanche players who participated in the 2026 Winter Olympics.

For three of the Avalanche’s key players -- Cale Makar, Nathan MacKinnon and Devon Toews -- losing the Olympic gold medal game with Team Canada will serve as a reminder of how thin the margins can be, and how losing a heartbreaking game can feel.

“The motivation for us, at least, on the Canadian side -- it doesn’t feel like we won anything yet,” Makar said. “I think it would be a good cap-off for this season (to win the Stanley Cup). I don’t think motivation is anything we need to worry about. … This team, we’re very mature; we can handle it.”

Like the Team Canada players on the Avalanche, others who participated in the Olympics, including bronze-medal winning Artturi Lehkonen and Joel Kiviranta of Team Finland, Gabriel Landeskog of Team Sweden and Martin Necas of Team Czechia, have unfinished business in the NHL postseason after not reaching their ultimate goal in the international tournament.

But, on the flip side, forward Brock Nelson won the gold medal with Team USA and is seeking his first Stanley Cup championship in his 13th NHL season. Nelson said he’s hoping to feed off the momentum after his country’s triumph.

“I try to harness that energy, that feeling and the excitement of coming out on top and using that as fuel and motivation,” Nelson said about the Olympics being a catalyst for his pursuit of the Stanley Cup. “Winning the Stanley Cup could arguably be more of a physical and mental grind too, just given the duration of it, over the course of a couple months. Just going to war with the guys. ... Just to stoke that fire of what it would feel like to get the job done would be incredibly special.”

MacKinnon and Toews each had a golden opportunity during the 2-1 overtime loss to the United States on Feb. 22, including MacKinnon missing wide on a shot with United States goalie Connor Hellebuyck out of position.

MacKinnon said that despite the loss, the Olympics and the 4 Nations Face-Off last season were good preparation for the emotional highs and lows of the postseason.

“It’s hard. If you ask any of the guys, it’s not easy; it’s like six Game 7s, and then when you come back, it’s weird,” MacKinnon said about going from the Olympics back to the regular season. “It’s starting to feel more normal, but when you come back, it’s not like you’re carrying that over. ... I think you can use the experience for the playoffs; it’s always good to play in big games and feel that pressure, so I think that’s a good thing for sure.”

Despite winning gold, Nelson, who was acquired by Colorado from the New York Islanders prior to the NHL Trade Deadline last season, knows the feeling of falling short in the playoffs. He was on the Islanders when they lost in the Eastern Conference Final in 2020 and Stanley Cup Semifinals in 2021.

But the motivation from winning or losing in the Olympics is not all that drives the Avalanche players.

Colorado has nine players from its 2022 Stanley Cup championship team, including forward Nazem Kadri (reacquired by Avalanche in a trade with the Calgary Flames on March 6), who want to experience that feeling again.

Then there is defenseman Brent Burns, 41, who has played 1,579 career regular-season games (including 1,007 straight) and 135 career postseason games (including a trip to the 2016 Stanley Cup Final with San Jose Sharks) but never won the Cup.

Burns also appeared in other conference finals with both the Sharks (2019) and Carolina Hurricanes (2023, 2025) before signing a one-year contract with the Avalanche on July 2, 2025.

“We have guys that were here in 2022 that want to get back on top of the mountain,” Bednar said. “We (also) have older guys (like Burns) that have been working their whole careers that are trying to get there as well. And young guys that are coming in, and our 2022 guys are trying to help them win. ... It’s going to be a tough task, but I think our guys are up for the challenge and excited about the challenge.”​

Necas said getting back into the rhythm of the NHL regular season following the Olympics was “a nice change for us.” Landeskog, who missed three straight regular seasons because of knee injuries before returning to the Avalanche lineup in the 2025 postseason, added that the team has rarely practiced on days in between games to stay fresh for the most important time of year.

“Once you get in the playoffs, it’s a fresh start, and that always rejuvenates guys a bit,” said Landeskog, the Colorado captain. “Especially coming back from the Olympic break, we had a lot of hockey in a short period of time.”

As if there wasn’t already enough motivation in the group, the Avalanche will look to avenge their Game 7 loss during the 2025 playoffs to Mikko Rantanen and the Dallas Stars. The forward scored a hat trick and had an assist in that game to eliminate Colorado, his former team, in the Western Conference First Round. The Avalanche had traded Rantanen to the Hurricanes earlier last season.

The playoffs this season look to be a gauntlet of Central Division teams, with the Avalanche, Stars and Minnesota Wild finishing as the top three teams in the Western Conference standings. And there’s also that elephant in the room: the last NHL team to win the Stanley Cup after winning the Presidents’ Trophy for having the best record that season was the Chicago Blackhawks in 2013.

To add even more adversity, Makar missed seven games down the stretch of the regular season because of an upper-body injury, though he returned Tuesday with three assists in Colorado’s next-to-last game, a 3-1 win against Calgary. 

“It’s going to be a grind, there’s no doubt about it,” Landeskog said. “That’s the way it’s supposed to be. The rhythm of playing every other day is nice, and it’s going to be the same way in the playoffs. Get into that rhythm and enjoy the bumps and bruises that come with it.”

The Avalanche will look to get into that rhythm when the puck drops for Game 1 of the Western Conference First Round against the Los Angeles Kings on Sunday.

NHL.com independent correspondent Ryan Boulding contributed to this report