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.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it\u2019s all about habits and all about confidence,\u201d Avs forward Martin Necas said. \u201cYou\u2019ve got to step into it and be good from the beginning. We\u2019re 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?\u201d<\/p>\n
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%.<\/p>\n
Colorado\u2019s power play broke against the Dallas Stars during the 2025 playoffs, and it never recovered last year \u2014 even with Dave Hakstol in to replace Ray Bennett as the assistant coach in charge of the unit.<\/p>\n
Avs coach Jared Bednar had plenty of critiques of the power play a year ago, but his words had a little more bite Wednesday.<\/p>\n
\u201cAttitudinally. I didn\u2019t love it,\u201d Bednar said. \u201cThere\u2019s lots of ideas and everyone kind of trying what they think\u2019s going to work on the power play, but keeping them all on the same page was a struggle last year. So that\u2019s the No. 1 thing that we\u2019re trying to do this year.\u201d<\/p>\n
There were two spurts when the power play clicked \u2014 when Brock Nelson got hot from the right flank<\/a>, 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<\/a>.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n \u201cI think our power play with the amount of skill, I just think about what my problems are with it \u2026 it\u2019s too slow,\u201d Bednar said. \u201cPass 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\u2019s not going to work. That\u2019s my take on it.<\/p>\n \u201cEveryone 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\u2019s too slow.\u201d<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n 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\u2019s side and even switched places with him, had the left flank to himself.<\/p>\n Nicolas Roy was in the middle \u201cbumper\u201d 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.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have to have a shot mentality. When we do that, we tend to retrieve pucks and move it quicker,\u201d Bednar said. \u201cYou 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.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re putting it behind us. We\u2019re starting fresh, and we\u2019ll keep reminding our guys of some of those things, and then they\u2019re going to have to go and execute.\u201d<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n \u201cI think if you get off to a good start, that confidence just continues to grow,\u201d Nelson said. \u201cThe firepower we have, the options we have, I mean there\u2019s no reason for it to not be really good. I think everyone in this room is confident that we\u2019ll be able to get it done and be top-5, top-10 in the league.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"Martin](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/TDP-L-AVS-OILERSAO1_1123x.jpg\")
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)<\/p>\n