For a little more than seven months, the Colorado Avalanche rolled through the NHL last season with statistical dominance and the results to match in nearly every facet of the game.
Nearly, because there was one obvious, consistent leak in an otherwise powerful, efficient machine. The one, obvious thing this Avs team could do to help withstand the loss of some key forwards up front and everyone else being one year is older is the one thing last year’s edition could not do: Fix the power play.
The Avs finished the 2025-26 regular season 27th in the NHL on the power play, converting 17.1% of their chances. Toss in a league-leading 13 shorthanded goals against, and Colorado was plus-32 when playing with the man advantage. Only three teams were worse.
“I think it’s all about habits and all about confidence,” Avs forward Martin Necas said. “You’ve got to step into it and be good from the beginning. We’re going to be working on it a lot. We have enough talent to be the best, or be one of the best. So why not?”
For five consecutive seasons, from 2020-25, the Avalanche finished the season between fifth and eighth in the league rankings. The Avs finished every year between 24.1% and 24.8%.
Colorado’s power play broke against the Dallas Stars during the 2025 playoffs, and it never recovered last year — even with Dave Hakstol in to replace Ray Bennett as the assistant coach in charge of the unit.
Avs coach Jared Bednar had plenty of critiques of the power play a year ago, but his words had a little more bite Wednesday.
“Attitudinally. I didn’t love it,” Bednar said. “There’s lots of ideas and everyone kind of trying what they think’s going to work on the power play, but keeping them all on the same page was a struggle last year. So that’s the No. 1 thing that we’re trying to do this year.”
There were two spurts when the power play clicked — when Brock Nelson got hot from the right flank, and then again shortly after Nazem Kadri arrived at the trade deadline. The Avs scored five times with the extra man against the Minnesota Wild during the second round of the playoffs, a key part of dispatching the division rivals in five games.
But then it went limp again in the Western Conference, a 1-for-10 showing with several empty opportunities at key points in close games.
“I think our power play with the amount of skill, I just think about what my problems are with it … it’s too slow,” Bednar said. “Pass it to Player A, he stick handles it around for a little while. Pass it to player B, who stick handles it around for a little while. Pass it to Player C who stick handles around for a little while. That’s not going to work. That’s my take on it.
“Everyone has an opinion, from Joe (Sakic) all the way down through our players. If you polled 10 guys, there might be 10 different things. But for me, as the coach of this team, it’s too slow.”
When the Avs set up the power play Tuesday for the first time during training camp, it looked the same as it did at the end of last year. The following day brought a different look.
Martin Necas (88) of the Colorado Avalanche celebrates scoring against the Edmonton Oilers during the first period at Ball Arena on Tuesday, March 10, 2026. (Photo by AAron Ontiveroz/The Denver Post)
Nathan MacKinnon moved from the left flank to the right side, with a healthy Cale Makar in his normal spot at the top of the zone. Necas, who was technically the net-front guy in a 1-3-1 alignment but often floated to MacKinnon’s side and even switched places with him, had the left flank to himself.
Nicolas Roy was in the middle “bumper” spot. Gabe Landeskog was the net-front guy who could also drift to one side of the net or the other to make a 1-3-1 look more like a box-and-1.
Kadri, who was on the right flank at the end of the year last season, worked with the second unit, along with Nelson, Artturi Lehkonen, Jaden Schwartz and Devon Toews.
“We have to have a shot mentality. When we do that, we tend to retrieve pucks and move it quicker,” Bednar said. “You have to start with sort of a foundational attitude and concepts that make your power play good. I think we can change some of that right out of the gate this year.
“We’re putting it behind us. We’re starting fresh, and we’ll keep reminding our guys of some of those things, and then they’re going to have to go and execute.”
When the Avs were floating between fifth and eighth-best in the NHL for a five-year span, it always felt like this group of players had the potential to be even a little bit better. After last year, Avs fans would be ecstatic if they could just get back to 24% and somewhere in the top third.
“I think if you get off to a good start, that confidence just continues to grow,” Nelson said. “The firepower we have, the options we have, I mean there’s no reason for it to not be really good. I think everyone in this room is confident that we’ll be able to get it done and be top-5, top-10 in the league.”
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