A Look Back... and Disagreeing with Dater

Mack is a stud and a few wins.

It’s been a crazy few days since last Friday’s trade deadline that saw General manager Chris MacFarland complete his complete overhaul of the 2024-25 Avalanche… midseason!

Since the doors shut on deadline day, the Avs have gone 2-0-1 with one solid performance, one okay performance and one no-good performance. Despite the swings in play (and a decline in each ensuing game since the shakeup), Colorado has still managed five-of-a-possible-six points. I’ll take it.

Here are a few of my thoughts:

• It’s going to take time to gel as a full team. I feel like the Maple Leafs game was pure adrenaline. Brock Nelson and Charlie Coyle in the lineup and Erik Johnson in the building talking about shoveling snow. The boys were ready to play and Nichushkin’s first two goals of the game proved that.

• Brock Nelson looks so effortless in his play. It’s even more noticeable because he’s slotted into the same spot that we’re used to seeing Casey Mittelstadt in for the last year. With Casey, it always looked like he was either A) working really hard to be there or B) just not in the right spot in the first place. Watching Nelson in the zone with the double-ones on his back reminds me of the way Martin Necas skates with his double-eights. Do I think Nelson has been great? Not particularly. But even his C+/B- games have looked to be better than what we were getting before the trade was made.