Altitude at Ball Arena may turbocharge Avalanche

altitude at – At Colorado’s Ball Arena—5,280 feet above sea level—players and visiting opponents both feel the effects of thinner, lower-pressure air. The Colorado Avalanche, with the best record in the 2025–2026 regular season, are widely viewed as Stanley Cup favorites, a

For opposing teams, the feeling can be immediate. As players hop off the bench at Denver’s Ball Arena and go chasing the puck, it’s not only the Avalanche’s speed that makes legs heavy—it’s the air.

Ball Arena sits 5,280 feet above sea level, a height that changes how the body gets oxygen from every breath. The Colorado Avalanche. led by players such as Nathan MacKinnon. have been turning that environment into a competitive edge while still posting what NHL observers describe as runaway-level results. During the regular 2025–2026 season. the Avalanche had the best record of any National Hockey League team. and they are widely considered this year’s favorite to win the league’s ultimate prize. the Stanley Cup.

The mechanics start with something most people never notice at sea level: oxygen availability. Air is made up of 20.9 percent oxygen at all elevations. but the effective percentage of oxygen—the amount of oxygen in each breath—changes with altitude because pressure changes. At sea level. higher barometric pressure compresses air and oxygen molecules. so it can feel like a full 20.9 percent of oxygen is what you’re actually getting with each inhale. Higher up, there’s less pressure, molecules spread farther apart, and each breath contains less oxygen. In Denver, the effective ratio of oxygen in the air drops to around 17 percent.

That drop might sound like it should hurt. and for visiting teams it often does in the first stretch of a game. But humans adapt, says Martin MacInnis, an associate professor of kinesiology at the University of Calgary. When tissues don’t receive enough oxygen. they enter a state called hypoxia. which prompts the body to compensate by producing more hemoglobin—the protein in red blood cells that carries oxygen to tissues.

MacInnis ties that compensation to VO2 max, the metric athletes use for how much oxygen the body can utilize. “When your body is exposed to [high] altitude. it provides a signal to increase the amount of red blood cells you’re going to keep in circulation. ” he says. That helps the body optimize how much blood oxygen can be used, allowing for energy transfer at a higher ceiling. “Oxygen is our measure of energy transfer. so it’s really how much energy your body can utilize in a period of time. ” MacInnis says. “The ability to use more means you can do more work. which. in hockey terms. would [mean] you could sustain a higher intensity than someone with a lower VO2 max.”.

The Avalanche don’t just arrive for games and hope the environment cooperates. They play 41 regular NHL season home games at Ball Arena. and they do most of their practice games and gym workouts at high elevation. Randy Wilber, a senior sports physiologist at the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Training Center. says the choice matters because altitude training can add what he describes as an extra training load—so long as recovery keeps up. His point is that the physiological “stress” can translate into a sensation of additional capability. “In my opinion. it allows for an additional ‘training stress. ’ which. if balanced by adequate recovery. can effectively result in the Avalanche players feeling like they have ‘five gears’ instead of ‘four gears’ and having the confidence in knowing that they have that five-gear advantage over their sea-level opponents. ” Wilber says.

For opponents, that advantage works in two directions. The Avalanche benefit from improved cardiorespiratory conditioning, while visitors are suddenly forced into an oxygen-stressed environment.

Mario Leone. an adjunct professor of physiology at Quebec’s University of Sherbrooke. says that data collected by NHL strength and conditioning departments show visiting players experience a 5 to 10 percent decline in performance during the first 10 minutes of a game against the Avalanche in Denver. Leone adds that visiting teams’ oxygen saturation, or SpO2, frequently drops below 90 percent during high-intensity efforts. “The data indicates that visiting players’ oxygen saturation (SpO2) in Denver frequently drops below 90 percent during high-intensity efforts,” Leone says. “The direct consequence of this environmental hypoxia is a marked increase in oxygen deficit from the very onset of exertion. Due to the reduced partial pressure of oxygen. the visiting team’s aerobic metabolism struggles to activate. displaying a significantly greater delay than under normal conditions.”.

Still, altitude isn’t a magic lever that explains everything. Study after study has found training at altitude can increase hemoglobin and improve VO2 max. but those gains tend to be most useful for aerobic endurance sports—distance running. for example—where sustaining performance depends heavily on oxygen-powered energy generation over long stretches. Sports like sprinting and powerlifting are different. In short bursts, athletes rely more on stored energy sources in muscles rather than oxygen delivery alone.

Hockey sits somewhere between the extremes. Bursts can be short, but the intensity can also stretch—especially when a team is hemmed in its defensive zone. MacInnis points to where altitude improvements may matter most in the real rhythm of a game. “There are periods of long. intense skating where you’re not moving a lot. but you’re definitely working hard. and then probably where it has the biggest impact is on the recovery side. ” he says. “So with a higher VO2 max. you’re going to recover better between shifts. and then you’re more refreshed for your next shift.”.

That recovery angle could be especially sharp when the next opponent is playing far from the altitude they’re used to. The ability to recover quicker could spell trouble for the Las Vegas Golden Knights. who begin their third-round series against the Avalanche on Wednesday. Las Vegas plays in a city roughly 2. 000 feet above sea level. where the effective oxygen is around 19.4 percent—enough to make Denver feel. physiologically. like a different world.

Both teams have also carried recent momentum into the playoffs. The Golden Knights were champions in 2023, and the Avalanche were the year before. Still, altitude training alone can’t fully account for Colorado’s current dominance. The Avalanche posted the worst record in the NHL just under 10 years ago. meaning they didn’t always have a roster built to make altitude training look like an unstoppable advantage.

For MacInnis, there’s a bottom line that keeps the story grounded. “I don’t know that the Avalanche needs the advantage,” he says. He points to what the team is actually doing on ice right now: they swept their first-round opponents and lost just one game in their second-round matchup. “It’s not like every year Colorado is just running away with it. I think it’s just the players they have right now.”.

Even so, the numbers and physiology line up with the experience teams describe at Ball Arena. In Denver. the air is thinner. the oxygen deficit can hit from the start. and recovery between shifts can be where the difference shows. When a game is won by inches and energy. geography turns into an invisible opponent—and the Avalanche have been ready to meet it.

Colorado Avalanche Ball Arena altitude training hypoxia hemoglobin VO2 max SpO2 NHL Stanley Cup Nathan MacKinnon Cale Makar