As Eddie Vedder once said, it makes more sense to live in the present tense.

That’s how Jared Bednar chooses to view his power play.

Yes, the Avalanche have the worst power play in the NHL, converting only 15.4% of their chances. That’s in the past, however. After the Olympics break, the Avalanche are looking to wipe the slate clean and start anew.

Wednesday night’s win over the Utah Mammoth — a game that included a second-period power-play goal by Martin Necas — was a positive start.

“I loved (the power play),” Cale Makar said after the game. “I felt like we had some good opportunities in-zone. I think we just got to continue to build. I think the break was good. Obviously, we all went our separate ways and it’s cool, you learn a lot of different things from different guys you play with, so a lot of that stuff we’ll bring back and talk about.”

Although the Avalanche prior to the break could not score on the power play with any sort of consistency, their Olympians had no issues converting in Milan. Makar, Necas, Nathan MacKinnon and Gabriel Landeskog all scored while on the man advantage for their respective countries, and Artturi Lehkonen also managed to chip in with a power-play assist for Finland.

With no MacKinnon, the top unit of Necas, Makar, Landeskog, Valeri Nichushkin and Brock Nelson looked good Wednesday. Their goal came from good old-fashioned hard work, as Landeskog and Nichushkin worked to win back a puck in the corner, allowing the skill guys up top to go to work.

“I think we checked the puck back in the zone two or three times,” Bednar said after the game. “Val had a lot to do with that down low, winning some battles and keeping some pucks alive. … Sometimes those will go in, sometimes they haven’t. More times than not for us, those shots haven’t gone in, but I think Marty got good velocity on that one.

“We’ll take any power-play goal that we can get at this point to kind of get our guys feeling it.”

The power play looked a little different without MacKinnon in his usual spot along the left half-wall. When he returns, which is expected to come Thursday against Minnesota, he will return to the top unit, knocking someone else off.

Odds are that he’ll go right back to his usual spot, but given the struggles of the unit, should the Avalanche look to make a change there?

Necas’ one-timer was not his first from that left circle this month. The standout for Czechia at the Olympics scored two nearly identical goals in Milan with blasts that flew past the goaltenders. If he’s comfortable in that spot and has a shot that’s working, should he stay there?

“Yeah, we’ll see,” Bednar said. “That’s kind of Nate’s spot, but we’ve talked about a few different things coming out of this. Some things that we would definitely want to improve on from the first half. Good start tonight.”

So rather than looking at the 15.4% the power play converted at over the first 55 games, the Avalanche are choosing to leave the past in the past. Post-Olympic break, they’re sitting at 33%.

That number looks a little better.

What I’m hearing

• With Sam Girard being traded this week, Cale Makar is now the longest-tenured defenseman on the Avalanche roster. If that doesn’t make you feel old, I’m not sure what else will. Makar spoke about Girard’s exit after the win in Utah. “(Girard) was amazing to me,” he said. “When I was young, he helped me a lot. I stayed at his place for like a month at the beginning of my first season.”
• Brett Kulak has played with Connor McDavid, Sidney Crosby and now MacKinnon all in one season. Not a bad crop of teammates. “I thought about that. I’m pretty fortunate,” Kulak said. “For me, you just come in and you want to just absorb as much experience and wisdom and see how these guys go about their business and apply it to my career.”

What I’m seeing

• In just one year, they’ve made significant improvements to the Delta Center in Utah, improvements they’ll continue to make over the next two offseasons to make it more hockey-friendly. The entire first section behind both nets is now extremely steep, basically putting those fans right on top of the goaltenders. Due to the setup and how they’re going to renovate, it could be a very loud building come playoff time if the fans are on top of the players.
• I’ve advocated for the Avalanche to take a look at Necas and Nelson together on a line a few times this season. On Wednesday, we saw that out of necessity and it looked pretty good. Just to test the waters and see what works, the Avalanche should give it a longer look and let MacKinnon center Lehkonen and Nichushkin for a little bit. Doesn’t hurt to build chemistry with multiple linemates heading into the postseason.

What I’m thinking

• I’m guessing the Avalanche are feeling pretty good about getting that Parker Kelly extension done prior to the season. If they had waited any longer, the price probably would have gone up a fair amount.
• With the Girard move, the Avalanche freed up significant cap space for this season and next. Some folks have linked former Avalanche center Nazem Kadri to Colorado, but I may be the only one who doesn’t love the fit. With Brock Nelson around, where does Kadri play? Kadri doesn’t kill penalties and he’s not going to displace Nelson on the second line. Plus, three more years at $7 million is steep for someone who’s already 35. If the Avalanche were going to go all out and get one of their former centers, it should be Ryan O’Reilly, who would be a much better fit in that third-line center spot. He’d probably cost more to acquire in terms of assets, but he makes less money and is only locked up for one more season. Colorado’s prime window is pretty much the next two seasons, so it might as well go all in.