Worst Season Ever?

It's finally in the books. The Avalanche finished up the 2010-2011 season with 68 points, the lowest total since the franchise moved to Denver. The Avs missed the playoffs for the 2nd time in 3 years and have ZERO 2nd-round playoff wins since the lockout. In fact, they have as many playoff wins in the last seven seasons (16) as they did in their first year in Denver.

In other words, we're in a bit of a lull right now folks. The Avs had a grand total of 18 regulation wins (and just FOUR in the 2nd half). The Avs' 227 goals were the 3rd lowest total in Avalanche history and the 1st half vs 2nd half splits were a cliff-dropping 136 to 91. The 288 goals allowed were an Avalanche worst by 31 goals. PK? Worst ever.

Of course, there were mitigating factors. The Avs lost a franchise-record 474 man-games to injury...and these weren't insignificant players on the shelf. Yes, 288 goals is a hell of a lot of goals, but the Avs used three goalies this year - two that aren't starting goalies and one who is but didn't play like one (until he was traded, of course). And, thanks to the injuries, the Avalanche used 17 different defensemen. 17!

There are some positives. The team toughness was upgraded substantially this year with additions like Ryan O'Byrne and Erik Johnson. Hits is a fairly wonky stats, but the official Avalanche total of 1,726 was the third highest in Avalanche history. And, for the first time since the Avalanche traded Chris Drury and Stephane Yelle away, the Avs were over 50% at draws for the year. It took 8 years to replace those guys in the circle, but they've finally done it! (Stastny, Duchene, O'Reilly and McClement all finished over 50% for the year). Oh, and attendance was up this year, stopping a trend of 4-straight seasons of declining numbers. Actually, if you really want to take liberty with interpreting the numbers, you could say the Avs' attendance increased for the first time since the 99-00 season. But not even I am that reckless and irresponsible.

There are some other intriguing statistical oddities from the season that I'll be looking at over the next week or so. For now, here's a big table with Avalanche season totals in some key (or not so key) metrics, thanks to nhl.com, hockey-reference.com and the few Avalanche media guides I have around or could find online.