All things considered, the Avalanche went about as far this season as anyone could have expected after missing the playoffs a year ago for the first time since the franchise arrived in Denver from Quebec in 1995-96.

No coaches or players ever used injuries as an excuse for losses, but the fact is the Avalanche lost 325 man games to injuries or illnesses during the regular season -- captain Joe Sakic missed 38 games, left wing Ryan Smyth 27, defenseman Brett Clark 25, right wing Marek Svatos 20 and center Paul Stastny 16 -- yet still finished second in the Northwest Division with a 44-31-7 record.

The rash of injuries continued in the playoffs as front-line players Clark, left wing Peter Forsberg, defenseman Scott Hannan, Smyth, Stastny, Svatos and left wing Wojtek Wolski missed between one and 10 games.

Yet the sixth-seeded Avalanche pulled a mild first-round upset by defeating the No. 3 Minnesota Wild in six games before getting swept by the top-seeded Detroit Red Wings in the Western Conference semifinals.

By the time the Avalanche played Game 4 against Detroit, coach Joel Quenneville was without Clark, Forsberg, Smyth, Stastny, Svatos and Wolski.

Given the circumstances, Avalanche general manager Francois Giguere said his team delivered as much as he could have expected this season despite the four-game playoff sweep.

"I think so," he said. "I would have really liked to see how our guys would have competed if we were healthy. Going into the series, I really felt good about how we were playing and I liked our chances against them. It came pretty quick that we lost some important pieces, and it was tough to compete against them."

Hannan and Ian Laperriere each played in the 8-2 Game 4 loss with a broken bone in a foot.

"Those guys showed unbelievable character and heart," Giguere said. "To me, it's that warrior mentality. You just have so much respect for what they're willing to go through. That's part of the hockey culture, and you never ever use it as an excuse for a sub-par performance or anything like that. But it got to a point where it was a little overwhelming.

"There's no team in any era that can lose that quality and that quantity of players and still at this stage, when you're down to the best eight teams in the league, be able to compete at the level that you need to be able to beat them."

However, those positive feelings weren't enough to save Quenneville's job. The team announced May 9 that, in a mutual decision, he will not return as coach next season.

Goalie Jose Theodore, who played Games 1 and 2 against Detroit despite battling the flu, was by far the Avalanche's best player against Minnesota in the first round but wasn't able to duplicate that performance against the Red Wings.

Theodore enjoyed his most successful season in his three years in Colorado, posting 28 wins and a 2.44 goals-against average. He was especially solid down the stretch, when the Avalanche came from 10 points of the playoff pace to secure a postseason berth.

Sakic, at age 38, has started to slow down but still owns one of the most accurate wrist shots in the NHL; the injury-prone Forsberg, 34, was terrific when healthy but battled a nagging groin ailment and seems destined always to be hurt at some point; defenseman Adam Foote, 35, can still be effective on the blue line, but age is catching up to him as well; Smyth, 32, who signed a five-year, $31.25 million contract last summer as a free agent, had a disappointing regular season marred by injuries but was one of the Avalanche's most effective players in the playoffs until a foot injury knocked him out of the last two games.

The Avalanche will be leaning a lot on young players in 2008-09.

Stastny, 22, led the team in scoring with 71 points despite missing time to recover from an appendectomy; Wolski, 22, had a so-so sophomore season but still scored 18 goals; Svatos, 25, had a team-high 26 goals when he suffered a season-ending knee injury March 1; and rookie forwards David Jones, 23, Cody McLeod, 23, and T.J. Hensick, 22, picked up valuable experience and should receive plenty of playing time next season.

SEASON HIGHLIGHT
Trailing 2-1 in the final seconds in Vancouver on Feb. 27 while battling the Canucks for a playoff berth, the Avalanche rallied for a 3-2 shootout victory. Joe Sakic scored with 14.7 seconds to play in the third period to send the game to overtime. The game went to a shootout, goalie Jose Theodore stopped two Canucks shots, and the Avalanche got goals from Sakic and Marek Svatos against goalie Roberto Luongo to secure two important points. It was Sakic's third game back after missing 38 games with a groin injury and to recover from hernia surgery. Vancouver had taken a 2-1 lead with 1:45 left in regulation. "The two points are points are huge for us," Sakic said. "You look at the standings and every game is huge, especially when you play teams that you have to catch."

TURNING POINT
The Avalanche was four points out of the playoffs on Feb. 25 and coming off what appeared to be a damaging 3-2 loss in Edmonton when general manager Francois Giguere signed free agent forward Peter Forsberg to a one-year, pro-rated $5 million contract. On Feb. 26, the NHL trading deadline, Giguere acquired defenseman Adam Foote from Columbus for a first-round draft pick and defenseman Ruslan Salei from Florida in exchange for defenseman Karlis Skrastins. The Avalanche went 13-5-1 following the trio of transactions and secured the No. 6 playoff seed in the Western Conference.

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