Are the Avalanche a bit overrated ?

[Nihiliste]

They were ranked as the main SC favorite by most people before the season and playing in the weakest division by far, you would think they should dominate it along with Vegas and St Louis, yet they are in the middle of the pack now.

Are they not in full steam yet or what’s holding them back ?

Massively overrated. They have no bottom 6, no backup goalie, and are running 2 rookies on D

 

[Fisticuffer]

The media started the season with over the top mad Av's love. I never bought it and had them in a group below Tampa and Vegas.
So sticking with my pre-season opinion I don't think I overrate them and the media seems to have hit the brakes on the hype train as well. They might be reasonably rated now.

Media is always in a hurry to identify the next big thing. Regularly failing at doing so doesn’t seem to teach them anything and they’ll do it again next year.

 

[Northern Avs Fan]

The depth scoring has been hilariously bad so far.

It’s filled with bottom six guys who have like, 3,2,1, or 0 points.

 

[Super Hans]

Their bottom 6 has some great PKers, problem is they play like that 5v5 too.

 

[voxel]

The same crazy expectations happened with the Oilers after the 16-17 playoffs when they made it to game 7 of the second round. The media showers you with adoration and expectations.... same thing happened to the Leafs recently. It's just noise.

 

[wildbill97]

I don’t agree at all that their window is just the next 2 seasons, but I agree with the rest of the post.

I'm saying they need to go for it either this year or next. If that means trading a lot of future assets for a big name, then so be it.

Only a matter of time before they have to spend big to keep 92-29-96 in Colorado or come to terms with losing one or more. You know MacKinnon isn't going anywhere, but it won't be long after he's signed to a huge deal that Makar will come due.

 

[RogerR]

It’s hard to imagine a team giving up over 3 goals/game (17 in 5 games) to the Ottawa Senators and losing 2 of those games giving up 5 & 6 goals as being very good defensively.

Very small sample size you are going with I see. Ottawa is not that bad at all.

 

[JarvisFunk]

Congratulations!

If you disavow the legitimacy of last years post season, you should have no problem doing the same with this entire season.

Are they going to have a play-in series before the playoffs this year where regular season results are ignored?

If so, then you're right, I won't

 

[RogerR]

Last year Toronto and Edmonton had their teeth kicked in by Columbus and Chicago, respectively. This was before the playoffs technically started. Toronto and Edmonton had the same forwards then as now. Columbus and Chicago then lost in the next “round”.

The current set up has led to a lot of false bravado by fans of teams from the Canadian Division. But it’s the division of midgets. Of the lot, Toronto is probably the tallest midget.

Here we go again, last year...
Different rosters. We'll talk in the Spring.

 

[Tryblot]

Here we go again, last year...
Different rosters. We'll talk in the Spring.

You mean when one of the Canadian team gets a cake walk to the final 4 and you'll talk about how that team is a top 4 team in the league cause that's what the standings say?

 

[S E P H]

The team sucks, a lot of players are declining big time (Bellemare, Calvert, Compher) and too many players have consistency issues like Kadri, Burakovsky, and Saad.

Plus the Avs 5v5 play has been day and night different in terms of terribleness compared to last season.

 

[Eat The Rich]

You mean when one of the Canadian team gets a cake walk to the final 4 and you'll talk about how that team is a top 4 team in the league cause that's what the standings say?

So a 1st place team in a normal playoff year that gets to play the 8th and 7th seeds in the first two rounds don't have a cakewalk to the 3rd round?

 

[Paul4587]

They haven’t looked right to me this year. But they’re better off ironing out their issues now than peaking too soon and losing early in the playoffs like so many other teams do.

 

[Stephen]

You mean when one of the Canadian team gets a cake walk to the final 4 and you'll talk about how that team is a top 4 team in the league cause that's what the standings say?

The NHL is structured in a way that sets up the best regular season teams to play the weakest ones first in the playoffs in various conference and division formats. So this cake walk is sort of by design...

 

[Artorius Horus T]

You allowed EK65 first goal of the season... so i say yes

 

[Artorius Horus T]

The team sucks, a lot of players are declining big time (Bellemare, Calvert, Compher) and too many players have consistency issues like Kadri, Burakovsky, and Saad.

Plus the Avs 5v5 play has been day and night different in terms of terribleness compared to last season.

Hawks fans warned Avs fans from Saad....

 

[Alwalys]

hell no they aren't overrated they are stacked with insane talent

 

[Shinjuku Calling]

hell no they aren't overrated they are stacked with insane talent

no they aren't.

 

[Leafidelity]

They've been wildly overrated all season.

 

[Gargyn]

They are definitely overrated. Makar is very overrated. There are a few guys saying he is the early favourite for Norris. This was just a few days ago. Meanwhile he is 56th in goals scored for dmen. He’s not even scoring much this year and his defence is not in the same universe as Hedman and others. Then Landeskog, who just isn’t that good. Lots of third line type players scattered in and then you have Mackinnon who is a top 5 player in the game and Rantanen who is very good but not as good as many top like players. And their goaltending is average. Don’t get me wrong, Makar is very good. But he’s not Norris level. He would need to lead dmen in points to be considered and 1 goal on the season ain’t going to do it. The argument about him hitting posts is silly. All dmen have hit posts. Bury the puck and rack up the points. I wonder too if they’ll re-sign Landeskog. He sure doesn’t deserve a big raise.

 

[dlawong]

Just insane talent not playing cohesively well at the moment. As long as they heat up in the 2nd half, they will be fine. Goalies need to be better though I think.

Team definitely not overrated and has most of their best talents either very young or in prime with some good prospects in the pipeline. Expect them to make a deal here and there for a bit of upgrade on the bottom 6 if they want to improve the season.

Otherwise the issue may be with the coaching?

 

[Shinjuku Calling]

Just insane talent not playing cohesively well at the moment. As long as they heat up in the 2nd half, they will be fine. Goalies need to be better though I think.

Team definitely not overrated and has most of their best talents either very young or in prime with some good prospects in the pipeline. Expect them to make a deal here and there for a bit of upgrade on the bottom 6 if they want to improve the season.

Otherwise the issue may be with the coaching?

Yeah all that insane talent...

 

[S E P H]

Hawks fans warned Avs fans from Saad....

First off, he's better than Zadorov.

Second off, he's been fine in a lot of games this season, but it seems that nobody is scoring for the Avs (including MacKinnon) which is exacerbating his inconsistency issues. You can probably ask any Avs fan here and none of them would ever reverse that trade.

 

[S E P H]

They are definitely overrated. Makar is very overrated

He's been pretty much the best player on the season along with Girard and Grubauer. Every single other player, including 98% of the offence with MacKinnon have looked very bad. Watch the games some time and you'll get it.

 

[Alwalys]

Look at all this edge