Five Lessons Learned from the 2022 Stanley Cup Champion Colorado Avalanche

Since the NHL is a copycat league, teams watching the Stanley Cup Finals from home will take notes about the Colorado Avalanche in the hope of recreating their success.

What should the team learn from this year’s champion in the playoff run? Let’s dive into some points from the victory of the Stanley Cup in Colorado.

Depends on a skilled core

Sounds pretty obvious, doesn’t it?But the team can When things go wrong, they get impatient and begin to destroy the foundations they have built. Obviously, you may need to tweak your roster along the way. Think of Nazem Kadri bringing in defender Tyson Barrie’s center or returning to Matt Duchenne’s contract. But even the key players in the team, Nathan MacKinnon, Gabriel Landeskog, Mikko Rantanen, Cale Makar, and Eric Johnson, were the basis of this victory.

And this wasn’t the problem of getting a lucky bounce along the way, this was the Bring it to the playoffs with the best teams in the regular season. Watch their 5v5 play. Thanks to its aggressive creation, Colorado finished in the top two in generating the expected goals, with comparable results.And this is the The best team to limit quality opportunities. Team strategy is important here (and you’ll get there soon), but the strength of the roster that this team has built over the years is also important.

Accent your roster with key acquisition and use context to understand potential fits

The team needs a strong support piece, along with a skilled core, sticking to the rostering. How Colorado added these parts is very important.

First, how they took advantage of the misery of other teams. Valeri Nichushkin and Devon Toews are two key elements surrounding this. Faced with a cap crunch, the islanders made the defenders who move the puck their victims. Given how important he was to this run, it was a mistake at the time that it only got worse over time. Teams need to prioritize which parts to invest in, and elite defense must be that.

Along with Nichushkin, the star gave up a defensively strong player, though not the offensive gem they would have wanted when drafting him early. Signed after the buyout, Avalanche has grown a two-way game even if the scores don’t match. From 2021 to 2010, we made the final touches for facilitation play such as collecting packs.

Getting this year’s deadline is also an important lesson.There is a fact that Colorado knew when Invest in their playoff opportunities. Organizations using the data for analysis may also have found a way to isolate player strengths, determine how they fit the player’s needs, and set aside the quality of play around them. there is.

It’s Josh Manson’s defensive efforts, such as the versatility of Arturi Reconen in Middle 6, protecting the blue line that pairs well with Sam Girard, and Andrew Coriano’s own purpose and penalty killing ability. May have helped to recognize the impact on.

Expand your skills and add diversity to your lineup

For the past few years, it has been the combination of Landeskog-McKinnon-Lantanen that has paved the way. This year, they were able to further expand their wealth. Players like Nichushkin helped make that happen by adding two-way players who could catch up with the top aggressive talents and support the game. The addition of Reconen was done as well, thanks to his foresight and ability to win the puck battle under pressure.

The diversity of this lineup was even more important.Colorado Had Options for fine-tuning and creating new combinations as needed. When Lantanen didn’t live up to his expectations, he was moved to the second line. This brought the Landeskog-McKinnon-Nichushkin combination to the top with an expected target rate of 62.8%. When Kadri was out of the lineup, or Andre Brakovsky was able to find and combine other reliable options like JT Confer. It was prepared by this team for the regular season.

team can Win without elite goaltending

In some cases, the team can be as good as a goalkeeper. Look around the league to see how goaltending can build and break teams. The Rangers are a prime example of how the Elite Net Mind can help teams reach unexpected heights. If you play poorly on the net, your team may move to the bottom of the standings.

But if the roster is well-built and has strengths above and below the lineup, they can get through without the best goalkeepers in the world (with one of the best goalkeepers in Andrey Vasilevsky). Even if you play against each other).

Darcy Kaempfer had a good regular season but slipped into the postseason. He still allowed more than five goals than expected for the 32.8 expected goal workload mitigated by Colorado’s defense. He didn’t give the team many chances to win, but Avalanche managed to succeed. This is a testament to the team built in front of the blue paint, showing where the focus should be on creating the roster above all else.

Demonstrate strengths in the postseason

And finally, for team strategy. Colorado deserves a lot of praise here. The team can fall into the trap of turning to a heavy style in the postseason, far away from the strengths of the game reached at this point. The Panthers were well protected by Capitals and Lightning, No Looks like a regular season team that won the President’s Trophy.

Avalanche has left the game only a few times this postseason. There have been some cases against blues and lightning, thanks to the defensive efforts of the opponent and perhaps the instinct to play it safely. Game 5 against St. Louis, like Game 5 against Tampa Bay, stands out in that respect.

But in general, Colorado stuck to a successful playing style all year round. This is a speedy game that relies on defeating opponents and creating waves of attacks. With a score of 5-5, Avalanche had the highest percentage of post-season scoring chances (26.6 times per 60), finishing first in the rush attempt and second in the cycle chance (behind Pittsburgh). And they finished with the lowest slot trial rate (15.9 per 60).

When when Most importantly, during the third period of Game 6, he gained one goal, but Avalanche did not retreat to the defensive shell. Rather, Colorado protected the lead in the most aggressive way by advancing the attack. This allowed Lightning to unleash its power through it and even attempt to collect its own quality opportunities.

Avalanche was one of the best teams with the same strength overall, while leading the game at both ends of the ice because he didn’t sit and play safely most nights, even with some slip-ups. was.

Data via Sportlogiq