I don’t think it’s any secret that the breakout season that Nathan MacKinnon has had is the biggest reason for the regular season success of the Colorado Avalanche. Mikko Rantanen also established himself as a top notch talent that can put up some major numbers at the NHL level. Semyon Varlamov and Jonathan Bernier were both bright spots on a team that wasn’t given a chance at the beginning of the year.
Entering this season, there was a lot of pressure on the leadership group to bring this team out of the dumpster that was the 2016-17 season and they all performed well above expectations.