Breaking Down Avalanche's Remaining Schedule -- And Their Chances At Rising In Hyper-Competitive Central Division

Nathan MacKinnon (center), Cale Makar (right) -- Isaiah J. Downing, USA TODAY Sports

The Colorado Avalanche have been one of the NHL's toughest teams of late, going 10-3-1 since Jan. 28. That stretch of hockey has allowed the Avs to vault over the Minnesota Wild for third place in the incredibly-competitive Central Divsion. And if the Avalanche are going to catch the Dallas Stars for second spot in the Central, they're going to have to be almost as good, if not better. But let's break down their remaining 16 games and project how well they'll be doing.

According to the very useful Tankathon web site, the Avs have the NHL's 11th-toughest remaining schedule. Starting Friday in Calgary, Colorado has nine straight games against either teams who are in serious contention for a playoff spot, or who already occupy a playoff spot -- the Flames (twice), Dallas, Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal, Detroit, Los Angeles, and St. Louis. After that, they've got Chicago, Columbus, the Blues, Golden Knights, Canucks, Kings, and Ducks. So if they can play well in those first nine games, the Avalanche's remaining seven games should be considerably easier.

Getting into second spot in the Central is important for the Avs in many ways -- most notably, in terms of their home and road record. When they're playing in Denver, the Avalanche are an impressive 22-10-2 this season. But away from home, the Avs are only 17-14-1. Nine of their remaining 16 games are on the road, and that means Colorado needs to be better than that in order to challenge the Stars for second place and home-ice advantage in Round One of the post-season this spring.

Either way, it certainly seems like the Avs are destined for a first-round showdown with Dallas. And considering their season series record against the Stars is 1-1-0 -- with a less-talented squad than the Avalanche are after this season's trade deadline -- Colorado should feel confident they can hang with Dallas and get at least to the second round for the sixth time in the past seven seasons. The Avs did lose to the Stars in the second round of last season's playoffs, but this is a much stronger Colorado team we're talking about this season.

The Avalanche have arguably the deepest defense corps in the NHL, a strong goaltending tandem, and legitimate superstars in Nathan MacKinnon and Cale Makar. Most teams do not have that combination of depth and elite skill.

It took them a while to get up to speed this season, but as it stands right now, the Avs are as dangerous as any team in the league -- and they could wind up winning their second Stanley Cup in the past four years. Time will tell how they fare this season, but the Avalanche look like they can do a whole lot of damage the rest of the regular-season and the post-season.

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