Mile High Pollster: Avalanche fans carry too much baggage to hold hope

We’ve been down this road before, but can it end differently this time? Hard to feel that way.

It’s time for another Mile High Hockey pollster with the Colorado Avalanche staring down the barrel of defeat and elimination in round one of the Stanley Cup Playoffs. Colorado threw a dud in game five, but looks to bounce back and force a game seven. That’s something they were unable to achieve just a season ago. Let’s see how the fans feel about this round, which is soon coming to an end.

Cale is key

The first poll I initiated was designed to gauge how Avalanche fans view a few key players heading into Game 6. Cale Makar has been quite, a little too quiet if you ask me, and I’d expect that to change hopefully sooner rather than later. It appears that most fans believe Colorado’s success is most closely correlated with Cale’s performance in game six. Mackenzie Blackwood is the goalie, so it makes sense that he garnered some of the votes as well.

Damaged goods

Now, let’s see how Avalanche fans feel heading into game six. The majority of fans voted in favor of the Avalanche forcing a game seven, but most of the comments we received spoke of being burned too many times in the past, not to expect the same this season. We get it, it’s Dallas, and it’s game six… again.

Avalanche fans are plenty familiar with suffering a heartbreaking defeat to Dallas in the playoffs, but it’s still not something they are comfortable with. If you are going to criticize this era of the Avalanche, you can point to their lack of playoff success under both Pete DeBoer and the Stars. I get why fans aren’t ready to love again.

What to do, what to do?

I caught some flak for even asking this question right now, but let’s be honest, in 48 hours, the Avalanche may have been eliminated twice in a row by Pete DeBoer’s Dallas club, and this time without Miro Heiskanen or Jason Robertson. That will start the hypothetical sky fall, and these questions will get asked if that does become reality. So, what changes do you expect if Colorado can’t advance? Avalanche fans say they want to see personnel changes if this series doesn’t go as planned.

Game seven dragon

Now, let’s examine the optimistic side of these potential outcomes. Say the Avalanche come out and take care of business in game six, and we are destined for game seven in Dallas. How confident will you be that Nathan MacKinnon will win the first game seven of his career? Is this the year of slaying dragons? I sure hope so!