Halfway through the season, the Avalanche has been almost invincible at Ball Arena.
Within their friendly Denver confines, the Avs boast an NHL-best 17 home wins, including 8-1 over their last nine games. That home cookin’ is not lost on coach Jared Bednar, who’s seen a different team in Auraria versus on the road.
“I feel like if we’re down (at Ball Arena), we still feel like we have an opportunity to come back and win hockey games,” Bednar said. “We’ve been more consistent at home than we have been on the road. We haven’t taken nights off. We’ve had some lapses in our game within games, but our mindset to the play the right way and the competitiveness of our team has been more consistent at home.”
While Colorado is a much more mediocre 9-7-3 on the road, the Avs have been beaten only five times in 22 games at Ball Arena this season. They are winning in Denver at about the same clip as the Stanley Cup team of a couple of years ago, which finished with a franchise-record 32 home wins.
As in other local professional sports, maybe it’s the mile-high elevation that’s Colorado’s X-factor.
“What I’ve heard from talking to other guys I know around the league is that coming here is not easy, especially if it’s the end of their road trip or back-to-back games,” winger Mikko Rantanen said. “Other teams can feel it, and we see that.”
But maybe it’s also the raucous environment at Ball Arena, where defensemen Devon Toews says the maroon-clad crowd gives Colorado an edge.
“(The elevation) probably isn’t as much of an advantage as some people think,” Toews said. “It’s our fans. Our fans are loud. The building is loud. We love being at home, being in Denver and playing in front of our people. It’s always exciting playing here. … It’s awesome to get on top of teams, and then our fans bring it on them as well. It makes it even tougher for teams to try and come back on us.”
And, more tangibly, Colorado’s dominance at home this year is directly linked to the All-Star performance of its best player. As the Avs prepare to host defending champion Vegas in Wednesday’s nightcap, center Nathan MacKinnon is riding a 22-game home point streak, the fifth-longest season-opening streak in NHL history. Wayne Gretzky holds the record at 40, set in 1988-89 with the Kings.
With a point on Wednesday against the Golden Knights, MacKinnon will tie Joe Sakic’s franchise record for the longest home point streak at any stretch of a season, when Super Joe tallied one in 23 consecutive games during the Avs’ Stanley Cup campaign in 2000-01.
“We definitely want to keep the streak going for him, because we’re all aware of it,” winger Logan O’Connor said. “But it’s something we don’t really talk about. … He’s playing on a different level right now. We wouldn’t be where we’re at within the (standings) if it weren’t for him.”
Bednar said that even when MacKinnon’s not at the top of his game at Ball Arena, he’s still finding a way to stuff the stat sheet.
“He likes playing here in front of our fans,” Bednar said. “He’s finding a way to execute, even if it’s not his best night and he doesn’t have his best legs. He’s still finding a way to contribute, and that’s what top players do.”
With 19 home games remaining, Wednesday’s matchup against Vegas is a litmus test before the Avs embark on a lengthy road trip. Add in the fact that the Golden Knights shellacked the Avs 7-0 in their first meeting on Nov. 4 in Las Vegas — Colorado’s worst loss of the season by goal differential — and Rantanen points out the team “definitely remembers that game, and when those kind of things happen, (it’s motivation) to give it back to them.”
“Carving out another home win here would be huge,” Bednar added. “We’ve got to go off and play in Toronto, Boston, etc., etc. — tough teams, tough buildings, tough opponents. It’s one of our longest trips of the year, with eight days and five games. So carving out points while we’re at home is pretty important.”
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