Eurolanche

Expert's pick: Avs a dark horse

Colorado: The dark horse of the 2014 playoffs?

The Colorado Avalanche have had a terrific regular season. They’ve surprise so much that based on how surprising this really was, the playoffs should be theirs to lose.

The season before the lockout shortened 2012/13 season, the Avs came 7 points short of a playoff spot. Last season, only the Florida Panthers saved the Avs from being the NHL’s worst team. This year couldn’t be more different, as Colorado clinched a playoff spot long before the playoffs even began. What were the reasons for a turnaround like this? The biggest difference maker was hands-down Patrick Roy.

The new head coach gave the Avalanche a whole new look. He used his players to their full potential. He saw what he had in every single player and got the most out of them. He carefully put together his offensive lines and defensive pairings, made changes based on recent performances and prepared for his opponents’ different styles of play. Defenseman Jan Hejda was full of praise for Roy’s tactics in an interview for Czech sports paper Sport. Roy told every player specifically what he wanted.

Of course, Roy isn’t the only one who does this, yet he was the only one who brought his players to do exactly what he told them to. And this is something that a lot of coaches have their difficulties with.

Roy put together the youngest offensive line in the entire league, putting together Ryan O’Reilly, Nathan MacKinnon and Jamie McGinn, whose age average was only 22. He also showed trust in Russian goalie Semyon Varlamov and showed that by standing by him even as he had personal problems (he was accused of domestic violence, but the charges were dropped several weeks later). This trust was partially reflected in Varlamov’s great on-ice performance.  Varlamov later returned to his previous form and Roy was once again a big part of it.

The Avalanche aren’t the only team that is relying on a young core of players, yet they are the only team that is playing so well because of them.

Before the season kicked off, only the die-hard Avalanche faithful believed that the team could be successful. They are in a similar situation as they enter the playoffs. They lack post-season experience and will be facing the league’s top teams (Chicago, St. Louis, and Anaheim)… They face the same challenges they’ve faced in October, but Patrick Roy loves nothing more than difficult challenges. If there’s going to be a surprise in this year’s playoffs, you can bet your money on the Avalanche being the ones surprising the league once again.

This commentary was written Petr Novotný, editor-in-chief of Pro Hockey, Europe’s biggest NHL magazine. The commentary was written before the start of the playoffs and was translated by Eurolanche's editor Michal Hezely.