- 1 Colorado is winning with more than just its stars
- 2 Kulak, the perfect symbol of a group that keeps coming
- 3 A record that says plenty
- 4 Bednar may have his best formula yet
- 5 Kelly and Drury sparked the series at exactly the right time
- 6 The support lines are no longer bit players
- 7 Landeskog sees a team peaking at the right time
- 8 Depth that matters everywhere, not just in front of the other net
- 9 Vegas is next, and the test gets harsher
Colorado is winning with more than just its stars
Nathan MacKinnon can still turn a game with one burst of speed. Cale Makar can still turn an ordinary breakout into a dangerous rush. Gabriel Landeskog can still give the Avalanche that mix of leadership and grit that good spring teams always seem to have.
But if Colorado is back in the Western Conference Final, it is not just because the headline acts are shining.
It is because everyone behind them is chipping in.
Seventeen Avalanche players have already scored in the playoffs. Eighteen of the 21 skaters used have recorded at least one point. Those are not just neat little stat-line fillers. They are clues. Clear signs that right now, Colorado is not leaning on one line, one duo or one lone hero.
And in a West final against the Vegas Golden Knights, that depth could be the thing that tips the balance.
Kulak, the perfect symbol of a group that keeps coming
The latest example has a name: Brett Kulak.
On Wednesday against the Minnesota Wild, he was the one who sent the Avalanche through by scoring in overtime in Game 5. Not MacKinnon. Not Makar. Not some natural-born sniper built for that moment. Kulak.
On the postgame podium, MacKinnon recalled seeing a stat before the game: 16 or 17 Colorado players had already scored in the series. He turned to Kulak and asked if that had been his first goal. It was. So, one more name in the column.
That is exactly what Colorado wants to be: a team where danger can come from anywhere. A team where the expected threat draws the attention while someone else lands the blow. A team that does not let the other side sleep on a simple plan.
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A record that says plenty
With 16 different scorers in one series against the Wild, the Avalanche matched an NHL record. Before them, only a handful of teams had reached that level of spread-out offence: the St. Louis Blues in 2025, the Boston Bruins in 2019, the Los Angeles Kings in 1993 and the 1988 Bruins.
Yes, the 9-6 Game 1 win over Minnesota helped. When eight different players score in one night, the numbers will jump. But to write this off as one wild burst of goals would be too easy.
The real story is bigger than that. Colorado attacks in waves. Defence men, support players, the third line, the fourth line, everyone can matter. Everyone can have a say. Everyone can, at some point, become the player the opposition forgot to track.
Bednar may have his best formula yet
Jared Bednar is not hiding how much he likes the spread of offence. For him, a team like this is hard to game-plan against. You cannot go into a series against Colorado with one thought in your head: stop MacKinnon and hope to hang on.
That plan does not cut it anymore.
If MacKinnon’s line is shut down, a defence man can score. If the stars are held in check, a fourth-line player can get the engine running again. If the opponent spends all night staring at the names on the top line, it risks getting burned by the players coming through the back door.
That is what makes the Avalanche dangerous. They are not just talented. They are varied.
Kelly and Drury sparked the series at exactly the right time
Game 5 against Minnesota summed up Colorado’s identity perfectly. The headline will go to Kulak’s overtime winner and MacKinnon’s late equaliser in the third period. Fair enough. The big moments always steal the light.
But before that, who dragged the Avalanche back into the game?
Parker Kelly. Then Jack Drury.
Two fourth-liners. Two goals that might not scream “must-see” before puck drop, but change everything once the game starts slipping away. Kelly cut the deficit in the second period. Drury pulled Colorado within one late in the third. Without them, no clutch MacKinnon shot. No overtime. No Kulak celebration.
Playoff series are often won right there, in the shifts that look secondary until they suddenly are not.
The support lines are no longer bit players
Martin Necas said it plainly: the top lines cannot do it all on their own. In the playoffs, the third and fourth lines become vital. They have to forecheck, close gaps, avoid mistakes, wear the other team down, and sometimes score when nobody sees it coming.
Colorado has exactly that right now.
When those lines do not score, they still play clean at 5-on-5. When they do not fill the scoresheet, they protect the game, win a puck battle in the corner, break up an exit, and create a kind of fatigue that does not show up on a stat sheet.
And when they score, everything shifts. The bench wakes up. The stars get a breather. The other team realises the problem is not coming from just one place.
Landeskog sees a team peaking at the right time
Gabriel Landeskog has talked about depth since training camp. Not as a throwaway line. As a necessity. As a spring truth.
In the playoffs, the teams that go deep are rarely the ones waiting every night for their superstars to pull off another rescue act. The good ones need players who can make the small play, the big block, the clean zone exit, the net-front battle, the greasy goal at the perfect time.
Landeskog also pointed to the players who may not always score: Brock Nelson, Valeri Nichushkin, and others. Because depth is not only about goals. It shows up in the details. In the structure. In the battles. In the ability to stay steady when a game gets awkward.
Depth that matters everywhere, not just in front of the other net
The Avalanche have also used that depth in other areas. Injuries forced them to adapt. In goal, Scott Wedgewood and Mackenzie Blackwood have both delivered wins. In the lineup, everyone seems to have found a seat that suits them, as Bednar puts it.
Maybe that is Colorado’s real luxury: not just collecting talent, but putting it in the right place.
A useful player in the right role is often worth more than a flashy name in the wrong one. So far, the Avalanche look like a team that has found that rare balance between stars, lieutenants, workers and specialists.
Vegas is next, and the test gets harsher
Against the Golden Knights, that depth will not be a bonus. It will be a must.
Vegas knows how to play heavy. Vegas knows how to suffocate. Vegas knows how to turn a series into a slow, grinding war. In that kind of fight, easy goals vanish quickly, space shrinks, and the top lines eventually run into long stretches of silence.
That is when Colorado will need everyone. Not just MacKinnon. Not just Makar. Not just the names on the posters.
The Avalanche head into the Western Conference Final with one valuable certainty: their danger does not live in one pair of hands. It moves. It spreads. It can show up from the fourth line, from the blue line, or from a player who picks the biggest night of his playoff life to score his first goal of the postseason.
And if Colorado wants to climb back to the top, it will probably need the whole army to do it.
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