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The 2023-24 NHL season has been a curler coaster experience for the Colorado Avalanche. A variety of new faces joined the group this offseason, and there was all the time going to be a studying curve to kind out line combos and general chemistry. However, it’s taken a bit longer than the group hoped.
As the calendar is ready to flip to 2024, we’re almost midway by way of this NHL season – and Devon Toews, for one, is pissed off. In his fourth season with the Avalanche, the 29-year-old defenseman had some sharp words for his teammates following a lackluster loss to the hapless Chicago Blackhawks on Dec. 19. Whether you agree with Toews’ strategies or not, the feedback ought to resonate loudly within the Avalanche locker room.
Toews has Earned the Right to Speak Out
Since coming to Colorado in a 2020 trade, Toews has been one in every of Colorado’s most vital gamers. He’s been a constant contributor, main the group in plus-minus the final two seasons. He’s additionally nearly all the time out there, main the group in complete minutes in two of the final three seasons. Toews was additionally a gradual pressure within the group’s Stanley Cup run in 2022, including 5 objectives and 10 assists within the playoffs.
Toews is a presence off the ice, as nicely, rising as one of many leaders within the locker room. He’s all the time been trustworthy and down to earth with the media, which made his emotional outburst on Tuesday appear a bit out of character. That’s additionally the explanation why each Avs participant also needs to get up and take discover. Statements like, “I think we’ve got some guys who think they’re playing well and I think they’re kidding themselves at this point,” sound harsh, however he’s not fallacious.
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He accurately didn’t point out any names, however coach Jared Bednar reiterated some of Toews’ points in subsequent interviews. The coach talked about how freelancing gamers have been a difficulty the group has addressed all season, and Toews clearly acquired to a boiling level. There is a fairly good system in place in Colorado, one which has produced a Stanley Cup and a Presidents’ Trophy within the earlier three seasons. Don’t blame Toews for wanting the remainder of the squad to purchase into that confirmed success.
Avalanche Have Been Disconnected & Undisciplined
Toews could not have been speaking about merely one or two gamers. The actuality is that this is likely to be essentially the most undisciplined stretch by a Bednar-coached group. Not the entire offseason strikes have landed, as evidenced by the Avalanche dealing Tomas Tatar earlier than Christmas after signing him to a one-year deal in September.
Entering this weekend’s video games, the Avalanche are the fifth-most penalized group within the NHL with 364 penalty minutes. That’s a stark distinction to final season, the place they ranked 21st in penalty minutes with 675 PIM. That places the Avs on monitor to have 932 PIM as a group this season. The most the Avalanche have had in a season since Bednar took over as coach is 772.
The Avalanche’s penalty kill has been good, rating sixth within the NHL at 83.8 p.c. However, these are valuable minutes which are pulling the likes of Nathan MacKinnon and Mikko Rantanen off the ice in 5-on-5 conditions. It’s nonetheless December, however there’s no faster option to have your season finish in April than by giving up gobs of penalties. After a first-round exit final season, this Avalanche group has sights set on enjoying a lot deeper into the playoffs, and that begins by lowering their minutes spent within the penalty field.
How the Avalanche Should Respond
At the crux of Toews’ feedback was frustration with the shortage of group chemistry, and the bizarre phrases from the normally soft-spoken defenseman ought to trigger each set of ears in that locker room to prick up. Of course, there’s extra stated inside these partitions than is talked about to the media, and the gamers Toews is speaking about doubtless know who they’re. There are nonetheless 50 video games left within the season, however the time for determining chemistry ought to already be within the rearview mirror.
Every group offers with ups and downs, however the Avalanche have proven they will bounce again from a rocky begin to end sturdy. Through 32 video games final season, the Avalanche had been 19-11-2 – the very same as their file by way of that many video games this season. They went on to win the Central Division thanks to 3 six-game profitable streaks and a 10-1-1 surge during the last 12 video games of the season. Despite the consistency points, the Avs are presently only one level behind the Winnipeg Jets for the highest spot within the Western Conference’s Central Division.
Related: 10 Colorado Avalanche Milestones to Watch for in 2023-24
It’s straightforward to say “It’s still December,” however there must be a way of urgency with this group – considering how competitive the Western Conference has change into. Toews’ feedback present that he’s feeling that urgency and his frustration is coming from the truth that different gamers aren’t. The Avalanche desperately need to return to the mountaintop they achieved two seasons in the past, they usually’ll want everybody shifting in the best path to get there. If Toews emerges because the outspoken chief to rattle everybody into getting on board, that may solely make the Avalanche a stronger group in the long term.
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