Despite their identical records of 5-3-0 to begin their season, the Minnesota Wild and Colorado Avalanche have different expectations for their 2020-21 seasons.
The Wild are in the middle of a significant transition as they acquire as many prospects as they can in hopes for being competitive in a few years with a new core of highly-skilled players. Meanwhile in Colorado, they are where Minnesota wants to be so badly—on top of the league with everyone claiming them as the eventual champions and with a handful of players that would be stars anywhere they want to play.