Injuries to the top of their lineup is really starting to cool off the team that started off as one of the hottest in the NHL. The Avalanche are 3-5-2 in their last ten games, including two losses to the Dallas Stars.
Mikko Rantanen has missed the last five games, and the Avalanche have missed him badly as the offense suddenly looks very pedestrian. Then you have Gabriel Landeskog also out for the long-term future with a lower-body injury. This has decimated Colorado’s top line and forced their depth to really be tested.
This is going to really keep the Avalanche from building what it looked like was going to be a nice cushion in the division. Now that two-thirds of their top line is missing, they look much more ordinary and might even slip even further back in the standings.
The Avalanche are still a solid team and I’m going to leave them in the top-three for now. I want to see how their depth responds in the next month before writing them off. They have a big division game with the Predators up next on Thursday night. That game will tell us a lot.