The 2023-24 NHL season has been a roller coaster ride for the Colorado Avalanche. A lot of new faces joined the team this offseason, and there was always going to be a learning curve to sort out line combinations and overall chemistry. However, it’s taken a bit longer than the team hoped.
As the calendar is set to flip to 2024, we’re nearly halfway through this NHL season – and Devon Toews, for one, is frustrated. In his fourth season with the Avalanche, the 29-year-old defenseman had some sharp words for his teammates following a lackluster loss to the hapless Chicago Blackhawks on Dec. 19. Whether you agree with Toews’ methods or not, the comments should resonate loudly in the Avalanche locker room.
Toews has Earned the Right to Speak Out
Since coming to Colorado in a 2020 trade, Toews has been one of Colorado’s most important players. He’s been a consistent contributor, leading the team in plus-minus the last two seasons. He’s also almost always available, leading the team in total minutes in two of the last three seasons. Toews was also a steady force in the team’s Stanley Cup run in 2022, adding five goals and 10 assists in the playoffs.
Toews is a presence off the ice, as well, emerging as one of the leaders in the locker room. He’s always been honest and level-headed with the media, which made his emotional outburst on Tuesday seem a bit out of character. That’s also the reason why every Avs player should also stand up and take notice. Statements like, “I think we’ve got some guys who think they’re playing well and I think they’re kidding themselves at this point,” sound harsh, but he’s not wrong.
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He correctly didn’t mention any names, but coach Jared Bednar reiterated some of Toews’ points in subsequent interviews. The coach talked about how freelancing players have been an issue the team has addressed all season, and Toews clearly got to a boiling point. There is a pretty good system in place in Colorado, one that has produced a Stanley Cup and a Presidents’ Trophy in the previous three seasons. Don’t blame Toews for wanting the rest of the squad to buy into that proven success.
Avalanche Have Been Disconnected & Undisciplined
Toews may not have been talking about simply one or two players. The reality is that this might be the most undisciplined stretch by a Bednar-coached team. Not all of the offseason moves have landed, as evidenced by the Avalanche dealing Tomas Tatar before Christmas after signing him to a one-year deal in September.
Entering this weekend’s games, the Avalanche are the fifth-most penalized team in the NHL with 364 penalty minutes. That’s a stark contrast to last season, where they ranked 21st in penalty minutes with 675 PIM. That puts the Avs on track to have 932 PIM as a team this season. The most the Avalanche have had in a season since Bednar took over as coach is 772.
The Avalanche’s penalty kill has been good, ranking sixth in the NHL at 83.8 percent. However, those are precious minutes that are pulling the likes of Nathan MacKinnon and Mikko Rantanen off the ice in 5-on-5 situations. It’s still December, but there’s no quicker way to have your season end in April than by giving up gobs of penalties. After a first-round exit last season, this Avalanche team has sights set on playing much deeper into the playoffs, and that starts by decreasing their minutes spent in the penalty box.
How the Avalanche Should Respond
At the crux of Toews’ comments was frustration with the lack of team chemistry, and the unusual words from the usually soft-spoken defenseman should cause every set of ears in that locker room to prick up. Of course, there’s more said inside those walls than is mentioned to the media, and the players Toews is talking about likely know who they are. There are still 50 games left in the season, but the time for figuring out chemistry should already be in the rearview mirror.
Every team deals with ups and downs, but the Avalanche have shown they can bounce back from a rocky start to finish strong. Through 32 games last season, the Avalanche were 19-11-2 – the exact same as their record through that many games this season. They went on to win the Central Division thanks to three six-game winning streaks and a 10-1-1 surge over the last 12 games of the season. Despite the consistency issues, the Avs are currently just one point behind the Winnipeg Jets for the top spot in the Western Conference’s Central Division.
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It’s easy to say “It’s still December,” but there needs to be a sense of urgency with this group – considering how competitive the Western Conference has become. Toews’ comments show that he is feeling that urgency and his frustration is coming from the fact that other players aren’t. The Avalanche desperately want to return to the mountaintop they achieved two seasons ago, and they’ll need everyone moving in the right direction to get there. If Toews emerges as the outspoken leader to rattle everyone into getting on board, that will only make the Avalanche a stronger team in the long run.