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head coach: Marc Crawford

roster: C - Joe Sakic, Peter Forsberg, Stephane Yelle, Jari Kurri, Tom Fitzgerald. LW - Valeri Kamensky, Rene Corbet, Eric Lacroix. RW - Claude Lemieux, Adam Deadmarsh, Keith Jones, Jeff Odgers, Shean Donovan, Brad Larsen, Warren Rychel. D - Sandis Ozolinsh, Sylvain Lefebvre, Uwe Krupp, Adam Foote, Alexei Gusarov, Jon Klemm, Aaron Miller, Eric Messier, Francois Leroux, Wade Belak. G - Patrick Roy, Craig Billington.

standings:

Western Conference - Pacific Division
Team         GP   W   L   T   PTS   GF   GA   
y-Colorado   82  39  26  17    95  231  205  
x-Los Angeles82  38  33  11    87  227  225  
x-Edmonton   82  35  37  10    80  215  224  
x-San Jose   82  34  38  10    78  210  216  
Calgary      82  26  41  15    67  217  252  
Anaheim      82  26  43  13    65  205  261  
Vancouver    82  25  43  14    64  224  273  

x - Clinched playoff spot
y - Clinched division

team news:

by Greg D’Avis, Colorado Correspondent

Hopefully, the Avalanche's excellent draft -- where they picked up scoring, defense and toughness in the first two rounds -- marks a turnaround from what, first-place Pacific finish aside, was a lousy year. Bad trades, locker room dissension, a quick playoff exit and a fired coach made this a year that won't look good as a highlight film.

The season started off optimistic -- Jari Kurri, we were sure, would replace Mike Keane's leadership. Francois Leroux was finally the replacement for Chris Simon's mean streak. And with youngsters like Josef Marha, Christian Matte, Wade Belak and Eric Messier in the wings, the future was bright indeed.

Unfortunately, Kurri should have retired a year earlier. Leroux was often worthless. And by the end of the season, Marha was a Mighty Duck, Messier was burnt out, and Matte and Belak proved they weren't ready for the big leagues.

Despite having more talent than most teams have in a decade, the most common knock against the Avs -- lack of heart -- was proven right. The team was never dominant, never consistent. Keane's grit, and eventually Mike Ricci's, were severely missed. The few players who came to play every night -- Rene Corbet, Stephane Yelle, Jeff Odgers, Jon Klemm -- were all third- and fourth-liners and not the players who can carry a team.

The team still seems to lack the cohesive spirit that marked their Stanley Cup winning-club. While players like Keane, Ricci, Simon and Curtis Leschyshyn weren't stars, they were important, and the character players the team has now haven't been around long enough to establish a locker room personality. Watching the Stanley Cup playoffs, I was struck by how much of a "family" personality teams like Buffalo, St. Louis and especially Detroit had. Colorado is a team that doesn't seem to be friends.

The playoff loss to Edmonton exposed a lot of the character flaws. Edmonton newspapers aside, it was obvious to everyone that Colorado was 10 times as talented as the Oilers. But the Oilers cared. The Avalanche, aside from Peter Forsberg and Joe Sakic, looked ready for golf.

Changes are, at least, being made. While firing Marc Crawford may not prove to be a good move, it at least shakes things up, and Bob Hartley comes highly regarded. Uwe Krupp and Kurri are gone, and more players will follow soon. The 1998-99 Avalanche will be the most severely different from the Stanley Cup winners of 1996, and that, oddly, may be the best thing the team can do.

Peter Forsberg by Meredith Martini

TEAM MVP: If he stayed healthy, Peter Forsberg would've won the Art Ross and been a Hart finalist. As it is, he has to settle for being the best forward currently in the game today, and one of the very few players who can dominate in all areas of the game. He also answered questions about his playoff intensity by being just about the only Av who could score against Edmonton. He's got too many skills to count, he's smart on defense, he's tough and he's not afraid to throw around the cheap shots. And we love him.

SURPRISE: Well, that first-round loss to Edmonton was a surprise, but not a good one. Not many players exceeded expectations this year. However, Aaron Miller, after being a healthy scratch much of the season, played well in every facet of the game in the later season and the playoffs. He's finally learning to use his size well, he plays smart, and while it's a stretch to say he could be a dominant defenseman, he at least has the tools and intelligence to be a Sylvain Lefebvre-type player.

Other than that, Rene Corbet is emerging as a good potential second-liner, one with both skills and tenacity - he's expanded his game from a hot junior scorer to become an excellent agitator, defensive forward with offensive skills, and most important, he's the one Colorado player who gives 100 percent every night.

DISAPPOINTMENT: There's any number of candidates for this section -- Adam Deadmarsh, Keith Jones, Eric Lacroix, Francois Leroux -- but the winner never even stepped on the ice. After earning a reputation as a shrewd trader in his first two years in Colorado, General Manager Pierre Lacroix did his best to alter that in 1997-98. Virtually every move made backfired.

Leroux, signed to be a physical presence, routinely got beaten up by smaller opponents -- when he wasn't injured. Mike Ricci was traded for Shean Donovan; the Avs never replaced Ricci's grit and character, and Donovan was a routine scratch.

More disturbing is the question of what direction the Avs want to go in. After stockpiling draft picks for this year, they traded away two top young prospects, Josef Marha and Mark Parrish, for Warren Rychel and Tom Fitzgerald, respectively. Marha proceeded to go nuts for Anaheim; Rychel proceeded to get punched a lot. Parrish could be a high scorer in the NHL; Fitzgerald is an aging grinder who is an unrestricted free agent this summer. What's the point of getting youth, Pierre, if you're just going to trade it away for tomato cans? Look where it got the Rangers.

OFF-SEASON CHANGES: Two of the biggest have already been made -- coach Marc Crawford was fired or quit, depending on who you ask, and defenseman Uwe Krupp (an unrestricted free agent) went to Nashville in the expansion draft.

There'll be plenty more. Really, only a few players should be untouchable -- Patrick Roy, Peter Forsberg and Joe Sakic, and maybe Adam Foote as well. The rest should all be considered available.

Some of the names which could have an impact in upcoming months:

Valeri Kamensky by Meredith Martini

Valeri Kamensky -- His name was already mentioned in draft-day talks with the Rangers. While he's a high-scoring winger who can dominate a game, and has good chemistry with Forsberg, he's got a few things going against him:

* He's aging, he's been injury-prone and he's an unrestricted free agent next summer.
* He's the ultimate in hot and cold: he's a superstar one game and invisible the next.
* He held out once. Lacroix doesn't like holdouts -- witness that of all players who have held out since the team came to Colorado (Wendel Clark, Martin Rucinsky, Scott Young, Chris Simon) only Kamensky is still with the team.

On the other hand, I have a Kamensky jersey, so it would suck if he got traded.

Adam Deadmarsh -- Again, he was rumored to be gone by draft day but wasn't traded. Good power forwards are rare, but the Avalanche have to be sick of waiting for him to reach his potential.

Keith Jones -- He was great in 96-97, then injured in 97-98 and lousy in the playoffs. He's a good agitator who can score, and he gives the Avs two good scoring lines, but he could be gone for the right price.

Craig Billington -- Never has a backup goalie, who plays 10 games a year, been so important. The Avs have a big decision to make about the Biller, who's an unrestricted free agent.

Do they:
* Sign Billington for one more year to give Goalie-of-the-Future Marc Denis another year to develop after a poor 97-98?

* Jettison Billington and bring in Denis to start his apprenticeship?

* Go with neither and bring up Petr Franek, who isn't the Goalie-of-the -Future but did better at Hershey, and risk ruining Denis' confidence?

Probably stick with Billington -- after all, there's another expansion draft next year.

Plenty more could be gone. Alexei Gusarov? Almost definitely. At least one of Francois Leroux, Warren Rychel or Jeff Odgers is on the way out. Stephane Yelle, Jon Klemm, and Sylvain Lefebvre could all be gone for the right price.

Lacroix has a difficult task ahead of him this summer: rebuild a team that is only two seasons removed from a Stanley Cup. He's still got a good nucleus; the challenge is to rebuild the outer layers without damaging the delicate core.

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