MacKinnon, Makar take control for Colorado until full cast returns, possibly even Landeskog

Last season: 50-25-7, lost to Dallas in the second round of playoffs.

COACH: Jared Bednar (341-217-60 over 8 seasons, 1 Stanley Cup title).

SEASON OPENER: Oct. 9 at Vegas.

DEPARTURES: F Andrew Cogliano, F Brandon Duhaime, G Pavel Francouz, D Caleb Jones, F Zach Parise, F Yakov Trenin, D Sean Walker.

ADDITIONS: D Erik Brannstrom, D Calvin de Haan, F Parker Kelly, D Oliver Kylington, D Calle Rosén.

GOALIES: Alexandar Georgiev (38-18-5, 3.02 goals-against average, 0.897 save percentage), Justus Annunen (8-4-1, 2.25, 0.928).

BETMGM STANLEY CUP ODDS: 11-1.

The Colorado Avalanche figure to look a whole lot different later in the season. They are without captain Gabriel Landeskog (knee) and Artturi Lehkonen (shoulder) for an undetermined amount of time. But they could have back Valeri Nichushkin from suspension in mid-November. League MVP Nathan MacKinnon, defenseman Cale Makar and forward Mikko Rantanen will be counted on to keep the team afloat until the cast reunites. There are no guarantees with Landeskog, who's missed the last two seasons. Nichushkin went missing in the middle of a playoff series for a second straight postseason due to circumstances away from the ice. MacKinnon is coming off career highs in goals (51), assists (89) and shots (405). Georgiev led the NHL with 38 wins. Makar finished with 90 points, the most by an Avalanche defenseman in a season single in franchise history. Rantanen set a career high with 62 assists while averaging nearly 23 minutes of ice time.

The good: Colorado’s big-name players — MacKinnon, Makar and Rantanen — are all coming off banner seasons. Nichushkin will be a big lift whenever he returns after a career year that included 28 goals, 53 points and six game-winning scores. MacKinnon was nearly unstoppable at home, recording at least a point in each of Colorado’s first 35 home games. Only Wayne Gretzky had a longer run at home in a single season (40 in 1988-89).

The not-so-good: The concerns over Nichushkin. The NHL and NHL Players’ Association announced his suspension about an hour before the start of the Avalanche’s 5-1 loss to the Dallas Stars on May 13 that left them trailing 3-1 in the second-round series. “Time heals all wounds,” Bednar said. Some feelings may need to be soothed once Nichushkin rejoins the team.

Jonathan Drouin returned for another season after turning in a year that saw him finish with a career-best 56 points (19 goals, 37 assists). He's reunited with MacKinnon, his good friend, to rekindle the scoring chemistry from their days with the Halifax Mooseheads, where they captured a Memorial Cup in 2012-13. Logan O’Connor had a career-best 13 goals despite being limited to 57 games and undergoing hip surgery in March. He recently signed a six-year contract extension.

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Colorado Avalanche right wing Logan O'Connor responds to questions during a news conference to announce that he signed a six-year contract extension with the hockey club Monday, Sept. 23, 2024, in Denver. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)

Colorado Avalanche goaltender Justus Annunen makes a save against the Dallas Stars in the first period of an NHL preseason hockey game Monday, Sept. 23, 2024, in Denver. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)

FILE - Colorado Avalanche center Nathan MacKinnon waits for play to resume in the second period of an NHL hockey game Tuesday, March 26, 2024, in Denver. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski, File)

FILE - Colorado Avalanche defenseman Cale Makar warms up for the second period of Game 4 of an NHL hockey Stanley Cup playoff series Monday, May 13, 2024, in Denver. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)

FILE - Colorado Avalanche defenseman Cale Makar, left, collects the puck with Winnipeg Jets center Adam Lowry, right, in pursuit in the second period of Game 4 of an NHL Stanley Cup first-round playoff series Sunday, April 28, 2024, in Denver. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)

FILE - Colorado Avalanche center Nathan MacKinnon collects the puck in the third period of Game 6 of an NHL hockey playoff series Friday, May 17, 2024, in Denver. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Data collected from 30 American cities showed an 18% decrease in the homicide rate from 2025 compared to the same period in 2026, translating to about 215 fewer homicides this year, according to a new report from the independent Council on Criminal Justice.

Should the trend continue, it would push the annual homicide rate to the lowest levels in over a century once final numbers are released at the end of the year.

The report, released Thursday, tracked 13 crimes and recorded drops in nine of those categories, including carjackings, residential burglary and aggravated assaults. There was a small jump in shoplifting, domestic violence incidents, sexual assaults and drug offenses over the same period between 2025 and 2026, the report showed.

Experts say the broadly positive changes are exceeding expectations, improving on baseline crime rates from before 2020 and the COVID-19 pandemic, which brought historic surges in violence.

Democrats and Republicans across the country have tried to capitalize on the positive developments during a competitive midterm election year. But the trends documented in the report carry through in cities with leadership across the political spectrum.

That suggests the most significant factors contributing to the improvements are taking place nationwide and are not specific to a single local public safety measure, said Adam Gelb, the president and CEO of the Council on Criminal Justice, a nonpartisan think tank for criminal justice policy and research.

“Murder and other crime rates are falling across the map in cities with different political leadership, different housing and economic conditions, different policing and prosecution and violence reduction strategies and different levels of federal enforcement activity,” Gelb said.

The council collects data from police departments and other law enforcement sources. Some of the report categories include data from as many as 36 cities, while others include fewer cities in their totals because of tracking gaps or differences in definitions for specific crimes.

Notably, Gelb said that a significant number of violent crimes were less deadly: There was a 23% drop in the lethality of the crimes committed, which is measured by the share of serious violent crime that is fatal.

Many of the non-violent crimes tracked in the report also saw declines, including a 13% drop in residential burglaries year over year and a 50% drop in burglaries compared to pre-pandemic levels in 2019. At the same time, reported shoplifting bucked the trends of other property crimes, showing a 5% increase. And while there was a small increase in drug offenses, those were still lower than pre-pandemic levels.

Roughly a third of the 30 sampled cities defied average homicide rate declines across the country, recording an increase in deadly violence from the first half of 2025 to the same period in 2026. That includes Norfolk, Virginia, which saw a 64% increase in homicides, and San Francisco, which saw a 55% increase. The number of cities that saw a longer-term increase was far smaller: Only Norfolk, Austin, Pittsburgh and Minneapolis experienced more homicides in 2026 than in the same period in 2019.

There are many factors that could impact why a location sees increases or decreases in certain crimes when another doesn't, according to John Roman, director of the Center on Public Safety and Justice at the National Opinion Research Center from the University of Chicago.

Roman said that conservative politicians affiliated with President Donald Trump will point to intensified immigration crackdowns and the deployment of the National Guard in cities like Los Angeles and Memphis, whereas liberal politicians might point to former Democratic President Joe Biden's public safety legislation that strengthened background checks on firearm sales.

But ultimately, Roman said, the best explanations transcend specific administrations. That ranges from decreased drug usage and therefore fewer purchases from illegal markets, which are often linked to violence, to an influx of federal funding for localities after the pandemic that was spent on social programming.

Those programs, Roman said, often funded jobs like teachers and social workers who primarily work with “young people who are the highest risk of violence and victimization.”

While both Gelb and Roman concurred that there wasn't a single reason, Gelb said the outcomes should be studied for future insights and celebrated.

“This is one of the most significant public safety developments in decades. It means lives are being saved, families are spared trauma and communities are regaining stability,” Gelb said.

FILE - The west facade of the Supreme Court Building bears the motto "Equal Justice Under Law" on March 20, 2019, in Washington. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)