Colorado Avalanche: The Worst Best Team in the NHL

The Colorado Avalanche have taken the NHL by storm.

Following a putrid effort in which Avalanche faithful watched their former powerhouse team fall to dead last in the Western Conference, new coach Joe Sacco has brought the franchise back from the dead, largely thanks to stand out rookies Matt Duchene and Ryan O'Reilly.

Currently sitting one point out of the Northwest Division lead, the Avalanche sport an impressive 25-15-6 record through 46 games.

That record should be better.

Thirty-three is the number of times the Avalanche have had a lead in the final frame this season.

They don't have 33 wins; no team has 33 wins yet. But I doubt any team outside of the elite like Chicago, San Jose, and New Jersey—the top three teams in the NHL—have had 33 third period leads.

The Avalanche sit sixth in the Western Conference heading into tonight's action against Calgary.

This statistic is not a case of Colorado letting eight games slip away from them; it's a case of them giving up.

From Game One of the season, where the Avalanche were outshot 19-1 in the third period with a 5-2 lead over San Jose, to Game 46, where Colorado saw a 3-1 third period lead over the Sabres blown—again outshot in the final frame 15-4—things haven't changed a bit.

It's very possible that the third period sleepwalking is a byproduct of the Avalanche having an NHL-high 11 rookies play for them this season. But rookie struggles usually consist of making mistakes with the puck, rather than a lack of effort.

I haven't read coach Joe Sacco's playbook, but I'd hate to believe his third period strategy reads "dump and change". That's all Avalanche players do at the end of the game, and it causes a barrage of shots on Craig Anderson. 

In the third period of Colorado's 4-3 win over the Senators on Dec. 30, where Colorado failed to maintain a 4-1 lead, TSN sports analyst Ray Ferraro made the comment "the Avalanche have gotten away from their game a little bit, but Anderson has been there to make the stops."

If only he knew that happens every night.