Avalanche clinch West top seed
Colorado secured the Pacific/Western Conference’s No. 1 seed, which matters because it locks their playoff pathway and home‑ice advantage heading into the postseason. (That clinch was one of the big NHL headlines circulating across social feeds on April 8–9.) (x.com)
Colorado did not just win a nice regular-season trophy on Tuesday, April 7. The Avalanche beat the St. Louis Blues 3-1, reached 112 points, and locked up both the Central Division and the No. 1 seed in the Western Conference. (nhl.com) (apnews.com) Valeri Nichushkin scored twice in St. Louis, Martin Necas added the other goal, and Scott Wedgewood stopped 18 shots after replacing the injured Mackenzie Blackwood. That win gave Colorado a 51-16-10 record with five games still left on its schedule. (apnews.com) (espn.com) In the National Hockey League, the bracket is not seeded 1 through 8 like some other leagues. The top three teams in each division qualify automatically, two wild cards fill the last spots, and the first two rounds are built around divisional placement. (nhl.com) That means Colorado’s reward is concrete. The Avalanche will open at home against the second wild card in the West, and if they advance, they still keep home ice in the second round against any lower Western seed. (nhl.com) The standings show why that matters. As of April 9, Colorado sat first in the West at 112 points, ahead of Dallas at 104, while the Pacific side was tighter with Edmonton at 90, Vegas at 88, and Anaheim at 87. (espn.com) (nhl.com) So instead of worrying about catching Dallas or getting jumped by a Pacific winner, Colorado can spend its last few games managing health and sharpening lines. Coach Jared Bednar said right after the clinch that the team was “not all the way there yet,” because the bigger target is still the Stanley Cup. (apnews.com) (nbcsports.com) This is also not new territory for this core. The April 7 clinch made Colorado the West’s top team for the third time in five seasons, and the first time since 2023, with Nathan MacKinnon still driving the attack and Cale Makar still anchoring the blue line. (apnews.com) (espn.com) The catch is that a top seed only clears the road map; it does not shorten the road. The National Hockey League still makes every round a best-of-seven series, so Colorado’s advantage is last change, home crowd, and a cleaner path on paper, not a free pass. (nhl.com) That is why this clinch traveled so fast across hockey feeds on April 8 and April 9. Colorado turned the final week of the regular season from a race into a setup, and now every Western team knows the road to the conference title starts in Denver. (nhl.com) (apnews.com)
