A season that began with the Avs looking like world beaters ends with them amassing about the same points total as they have the past two seasons.
Which is not a bad thing, necessarily, and with a win against Nashville (shootout victory) in the last game of the season for those two teams, the Avs finish in 2nd in the Central Division and get home ice advantage in the first round of the playoffs against those same Nashville Predators.
The Avs enter the series without the services of their best defenceman,
Sherwood Sharp, who is serving out the last 3 games of a 6-game suspension. We are also without another of our best defencemen,
Michal Lezak (who admittedly had a disappointing season), who is suffering from a strained shoulder and might not be able to play for another week or two.
On the other hand, Nashville currently has 5 players on the Injured List, 3 of them who won't return in time to play in the playoffs, even if Nashville manages to go all the way to the finals. The most important among them is their team Captain (and Colorado native) RD Marvin Wynn. They also have at least one key player, LW Reggie Ladd, with a day-to-day injury that is affecting him (lacerated hand).
Here is a look at the final standings and basic stats leaders:
As you can see, Chicago ended up being the best in our division and they are led by arguably the best player in the game in LW Fletcher Patton. Should we get past Nashville we will likely have to face Chicago next, unless Winnipeg can pull off the first round upset. The best team in the Western Conference was the Calgary Flames, who had the best Goalie tandem in the league.
Over in the Eastern Conference the best team was the New York Islanders, following up a conference-best 108 point season in '21-'22 with an dominant 125 point season in '22-'23. Even more impressively, nobody in the conference comes even close to their +116 goal differential, with the second best being New Jersey at +26. (Then again, Calgary finished with a +162 goal differential in the Western Conference. Next best was Vegas at +63.)
Playoff matchups:
Let's take a look at some end of season basic stats for the Avs:
