Despite a historic first half of the season from the Colorado Avalanche, the Minnesota Wild and Dallas Stars have been stalking the league’s best team and hoping for a chance to catch it.

The Avs, after being one of the greatest teams in NHL history through 40 games, have now provided that chance. Colorado is now just 7-8-2 since an incredible 31-2-7 start to the season.

The days of comparing this Avs squad to the Boston Bruins from 1929-30 or 2022-23, the Montreal Canadiens of 1944-45 or the Chicago Blackhawks of 2012-13 are now behind us, unless Colorado makes another historic run to the finish line. Now, the Avs just need to dig in and make sure they secure the top spot in the Central Division and the Western Conference.

“That was a missed opportunity,” Avs coach Jared Bednar said Thursday night after his team lost 5-2 to the Wild. “That’s what that was. Nine points (ahead) if we win, two games in hand — that’s a long road to try and catch you. Now it’s tight. Five with two in hand, and there’s lots of hockey to be played. We’ve just got to take care of our business.”

Colorado had a chance before the Olympic break to really put the division lead in a vice grip. From Dec. 21 to Jan. 15, the Wild won four times in 11 games (4-4-3). Among the losses was a 5-1 blowout victory for the Avs in the Twin Cities.

The Stars fell into an even bigger funk around the same time —11 losses in 14 contests (3-7-4). Had the Avs stretched their lead in the Central to double-digits before the Olympic break, the race would effectively be over.

Instead, the Avs have faltered as Minnesota and Dallas have rebounded and surged —  the two clubs are a combined 14-0-1 since Jan. 22.

And so Colorado’s loss Thursday night became a significant swing.

“That’s a game that you really want to have,” Bednar said. “But I think you have to expect to play your best hockey game in order to beat a team like Minny, Dallas, amongst others. And I didn’t think we were at our best tonight. There were some things I liked, but probably too much I didn’t like and one of them was the discipline and the penalties we took.”

Packed in on the back end

The schedule is also going to be a tough opponent down the stretch. In most years, having games in hand is a significant advantage. The Avs are five points up on the Wild with two games in hand, plus six clear of the Stars with one contest in hand.

Given how compressed the schedule is going to be for the Avs post-break, Colorado may wish those extra games were scheduled earlier in the calendar. Utah and Minnesota were the start of 27 games in 51 days. There is another four-point game against Minnesota at Ball Arena next Saturday (March 8). There are also still three games with Dallas, including one on trade deadline day (March 6) and April 4 in North Texas.

“It’s going to be important games, especially these division games, no doubt about it,” Avs captain Gabe Landeskog said. “I think for us, obviously, these are important games and points, we know that, but I think for us it doesn’t really change our approach or anything like that. We have to be a few percent better, that’s for sure.

“There’s definitely things we can clean up and be better at, but we’ll learn from it and we’ll move on.”

The Avalanche were one of the five best teams of all time for 50 percent of the season. Colorado has also been a middling .500 outfit for nearly 20 percent of the campaign.

Injuries played a big part, but now the Avs are as healthy as they’ve been in months. What seemed a given a month ago — Colorado finishing first in the Central and the West and likely the entire league — could be more of a dogfight in the next few weeks than expected.