Everyone has bad weeks, but in the NHL, a bad week can cost you your job. And it did for Ray Bennett.  

After the devastating series loss to the Dallas Stars last spring, the Avalanche made the decision to move on from Bennett, who had run Colorado’s power play since 2017. The NHL is a tough business, and Colorado’s decision is proof of that. Everything looked good heading into that series. From the moment Mikko Rantanen was traded, the Avalanche had the top power play in the NHL, converting 32% of their chances with Martin Necas in the lineup.  

That momentum came to a screeching halt against the Stars, especially when the team really needed a power play goal. Colorado finished the series 3-for-22 on the man advantage. That’s bad enough, but it’s the 1-for-15 run they went on during the final five games of the series that likely cost Bennett his job. With many of those power plays falling short at key moments in the series, it was time for a change.  

Bennett is out, and Dave Hakstol is in.  

Will the actual power play setup be all that different this year? Judging by how it looked during Colorado’s first power play practice earlier this week, probably not. You’ll still get Nathan MacKinnon on one wall with Cale Makar up top. With those two around, the Avalanche have predominantly only used one unit on power plays in recent years. They’d like to change that this year, if possible.  

“I think we have to (use two units),” Avalanche coach Jared Bednar said. “It’s a long season, and if a unit gets hot, then they can play a little bit more. There’s going to be players that have played on our first unit playing on the second unit, and they may have been on our first unit for years now. We’ve got a lot of those spots covered for two units and we’ll see how the chemistry goes.”  

We got a preview of those two units, as they’re currently constructed, when Colorado practiced special teams for the first time on Tuesday. Unit one consists of the usual suspects in MacKinnon, Makar, and Necas. The two players rounding out that top unit were Valeri Nichushkin and Brock Nelson.  

Nichushkin sitting in front of the net should come as no surprise. Over the past three seasons, he has had 31 power-play goals, many of which came off deflections in front of the net. Of players that have played at least 125 games in the NHL over the last three seasons, Nichushkin has the sixth-highest power-play goals-per-60 rate. Nelson, who was effective on the man advantage on Long Island and played for Hakstol at North Dakota, will start in Rantanen’s old spot.  

While MacKinnon and Makar aren’t going anywhere and Necas’ spot is probably safe, the competition for those other spots on the top unit will be fierce. Gabriel Landeskog was the net-front guy for years on the top unit, and it would surprise no one if he found his way back there at some point. His face-off prowess also gives him a unique advantage over the competition, as winning the offensive zone face-off can be huge for any power play. Artturi Lehkonen has also spent time on that top unit in the past and is as good as any player in the league at winning pucks back for his team, while Victor Olofsson’s one-timer is a weapon none of the other options at his spot really possess.  

Then you have the ultimate wild card, 40-year-old Brent Burns. He isn’t the power play monster he once was, and the team plans to use him a lot on the penalty kill, but no defenseman in the league has been better at getting a high volume of shots through traffic over the last 15 years than him.  

“Perfect,” Bednar joked.  

With guys like Nichushkin, Landeskog, and Lehkonen adept at redirecting pucks into the net, he could get a look if they just want the top unit to keep it simple. Shooting the puck is indeed something Bednar would like to see a bit more of this season.  

“I think our power play was first at the end of the year, but we weren’t in attack mode enough,” Bednar said. “We’re number one in o-zone time and number 32 in pucks to the net, right? Yet, it was still first. There’s an element of patience that we want, but we also want to be a team that’s in attack mode all the time.”  

And if Bednar and Hakstol aren’t seeing that attack mode at all times, there will be changes to the top unit. That’s the advantage of having depth.  

What I’m hearing  

• Bednar said the goal is still for Sam Girard to be ready for opening night. The defenseman had been skating before practices and came off the ice limping after one of those skates, but he’s been out there. They seem less confident in Mackenzie Blackwood being available in Los Angeles on Oct. 7. The goaltender started to take shots earlier this week and has had a trainer watching his every move very closely when on the ice.  

• MacKinnon had some thoughts on the condition of the ice at Family Sports during practice earlier this week, so that everyone in the arena could hear. Let’s just say it’s not something that can be repeated in print.  

What I’m seeing  

• Bednar seemed content with Colorado’s depth on defense beyond their NHL guys, but I’m a little iffier on it. Wyatt Aamodt and Jack Ahcan are two guys he pointed out that he really likes, but ideally, they’d be further down the depth chart. If Girard isn’t ready to go on opening night, Keaton Middleton is in the top six, and those two depth guys are one injury away from being in the lineup. The organization will be monitoring the waiver and trade market for another defenseman over the next little bit.  

• Did the NHL just can the Mikko Rantanen episode of their Amazon series? He was listed as a star of season two when they announced it back in May but is not mentioned anywhere in the written previews of the upcoming six episodes. Maybe Avalanche fans don’t want to relive that series, but if there were cameras on Rantanen throughout his journey playing for three teams last season, I sure want to see it.  

What I’m thinking  

• While the Avalanche want to use two power play units, the odds of MacKinnon staying out longer than everyone else still seem high. The guys playing his spot in practice on unit two were Devon Toews and Ross Colton, so don’t be surprised if the Avs just keep their MVP on the ice when unit two jumps over the boards.  

• I am very much looking forward to a shorter training camp and preseason next year. Six meaningless games spread out over two weeks is a slog.