Landeskog, Rantanen injuries throw water on Colorado Avalanche’s hot start

The 2019-20 Colorado Avalanche have been off to their best start in years, but a pair of injuries may derail the team right as they get into a groove.

The Colorado Avalanche had everything going their way through the first eight games of the 2019-20 NHL season. The team was 7-0-1, with no regulation losses to their name and were keeping pace with the Edmonton Oilers as the NHL’s best team over the first few weeks of the season.

Since then, disaster has struck. The Avalanche have lost two key members of their incredibly potent top line — Mikko Rantanen and Gabriel Landeskog — to injuries, ranging from the former’s “week to week” status while the Colorado captain is sidelined “indefinitely.” Center Nathan MacKinnon remains the sole member of Colorado’s top line for the time being, with Joonas Donskoi and Nazem Kadri getting promotions up the lineup in the meantime.

The loss of Rantanen and Landeskog for at least a weekly basis, until more on Landeskog’s injury becomes known anyway, has thrown a bucket of icy cold reality on the Avalanche’s scorching hot start to the season. The team was on their best start to a season since the 2013-14 year when they went 9-1-0 in their first 10 games, a year when the team posted 112 points and finished first in the Central Division.

Last season, the trio of Rantanen-MacKinnon-Landeskog was a play-driving machine for the Avalanche. According to Natural Stat Trick, the Avalanche’s first line held a stellar 54.74 CF% at 5-on-5, while having a 3.28 goals for per 60 rate, a rate higher than all but two teams in the NHL last season, in 68 games. There’s a reason this line was touted to be one of the best in hockey, as not only were they controlling the puck the majority of the time they were on the ice, they were generating goals for their team while doing so.

In the three games since Rantanen’s injury, including the game the forward was injured in, the Avalanche have gone 1-2-0, including a blowout 6-1 win over the Vegas Golden Knights. Small sample sizes, sure, but on the positive end of things, Kadri had two goals in the Avalanche’s victory over Vegas. His five goals on the season are second-best on the team behind MacKinnon and tied with Rantanen through 11 games on the year. The team will no doubt need him to step up in the absence of two of the team’s best players, and so far in the early goings Kadri has been solid.

That being said, the rest of the Avalanche lineup once MacKinnon and Rantanen have been taken out of the equation looks decidedly less deadly.

As of Tuesday, Andre Burakovsky and J.T. Compher were on the wings beside MacKinnon, while moving Kadri and Donskoi down to the second line. It will likely take the Avalanche time to figure out who works best alongside MacKinnon in this transitional period, so flexibility is likely going to be the name of the game when it comes to the Colorado forwards over the next few games.

The Avalanche were likely headed for a bit of a stumble after such a hot start. The Oilers and Anaheim Ducks both have cooled off since jumping out in the early stages of the 2019-20 season. While the team was impressive in their 7-0-1 start to the season, beating heavyweights such as the Boston Bruins and the Washington Capitals, the Avalanche were not going to replicate the Tampa Bay Lightning’s historic year from just a season ago.

The loss of Landeskog and Rantanen, however, has come at an inopportune time for the Avalanche. Colorado still leads the Central Division with 17 points, but the Nashville Predators have caught up to their mark after a stretch of great play. The St. Louis Blues may have lost Vladimir Tarasenko to a five-month shoulder injury, but the reigning Stanley Cup champions are still in prime position to make a run at the postseason despite losing such a talented player this early.

Much like how the Blues may be down and not out thanks to injuries, the Avalanche are still in fighting condition. Landeskog’s injury is more uncertain, but Rantanen’s could have been as bad as it looked on the ice and a “week-to-week” diagnosis is manageable. There aren’t many options on the table for the Avalanche to pursue, but staying the course and hoping their newly acquired depth can bolster them in the meantime.

While injuries to two of their best players has doused some of the flames coming off of the Avalanche’s hot start, Colorado can still weather the storm if the team steps up as needed.