The Colorado Avalanche began a new season Tuesday night in Los Angeles against Anze Kopitar and the Kings. Much like the Avalanche, the Kings made an early exit from last year’s Stanley Cup Playoffs in a first-round loss to the eventual Western Conference Champs in the Edmonton Oilers. Colorado, meanwhile, lost a devastating game 7 in Dallas against a Stars team anchored by none other than former Avs star Mikko Rantanen. Rantanen was drafted tenth-overall by Colorado back in 2015 and had a stellar career in the Mile High City crowned by the team’s 2022 Stanley Cup victory. Rantanen, who was in the last year of his contract, was traded to the Carolina Hurricanes after the Avalanche determined that negotiations had stalled, and an extension was not in the cards. Carolina would then flip the Finnish-born winger to Colorado’s Central Division rival Dallas Stars. Rantanen led the Stars to a win over the Avs in the first round, but it wasn’t all bad for Colorado.
Despite the loss, the Avs welcomed back Captain Gabriel Landeskog in last year’s postseason. Landeskog hadn’t played a game for the Avalanche since lifting the Stanley Cup all the way back in June of 2022 after sustaining a knee injury in that year’s playoff run. Colorado experienced the dreaded Stanley Cup hangover in 2023, falling to the Seattle Kraken in the first-round and again, failing to reach the mountain top in a 2024 second-round loss to the Dallas Stars.
This year, however, they hope things will be different. Landeskog dropped the gloves with Sam Lipkin of the Utah Mammoth in his first preseason game at the University of Denver’s Magness Arena September 21st after Lipkin laid an elbow on teammate Cale Makar. Landeskog, who became the youngest team captain in league history in 2012, is said to be a calming presence in the locker room but is never afraid to stand up for his teammates on the ice. Many are hoping this confidence could be the missing piece to get the team over the hump.
In addition to Landeskog and Rantanen, there were a myriad of other changes to the Avalanche lineup throughout the course of the 2024-2025 season including a complete overhaul in net. The Avs swapped out what was seen as a subpar goalie tandem for Mackenzie Blackwood and Scott Wedgewood, whom fans have nicknamed “the Woodshed”. Wedgewood got the start in the Avs’ season debut, filling in for an injured Blackwood who the team hopes will be back in the next couple of weeks. Wedgewood allowed just one goal on 25 shots, good for a .960 save percentage, in Colorado’s 4-1 win over Los Angeles.
Martin Necas, who also arrived in Colorado mid-season as part of the trade that sent Rantanen to Carolina, scored twice to help the Avs to their first victory of the season. Necas, like Rantanen last season, is on an expiring $6.5 million dollar contract which team management will presumably look to extend to avoid a similar ordeal. The Avalanche also brought in long-time New York Islander, Brock Nelson, to fill the second line center position which had been a revolving door ever since Nazem Kadri left the team following their 2022 Championship run.
Tuesday night’s contest was just the first of 82 total games that the Avalanche will play between now and April 16. A grueling schedule made even more compact by a three-week break in mid-February for the Winter Olympics where Avalanche superstars like Nathan MacKinnon, Cale Makar, and Devon Toews will represent Team Canada. While that’s great for them, it also means they’ll get practically no time off until at least April, and if things go to plan, June.
The Avalanche will play their first home game of the season tonight at Ball Arena against Central Division foes the Utah Mammoth. Even though it didn’t quite click in last year’s playoffs, fans, players, and management alike hope that a full season with the team’s new additions will yield different results. Especially with offseason pickups like defenseman Brent Burns, and forwards Victor Olofsson and Rookie Gavin Brindley bolstering their depth, the Avalanche seem to have a singular goal in mind for this season: To bring home the franchise’s fourth Stanley Cup.
