The nightmare is over, and hockey has FINALLY returned to our televisions. It’s hard for me to accurately explain just how much joy it has brought me to be able to watch hockey non-stop for the last week. I imagine its similar to the feeling of falling in love again after a rough breakup, I wouldn’t know because I have a cold, dead heart, but I digress. The speculation that teams would struggle to find their legs was mostly incorrect. While some teams clearly never found their groove (Penguins, Rangers), most were able to put in solid performances. The Colorado Avalanche, however, did more than just put in a “solid performance”.
The Avs looked as good as they’ve looked all season in their three Round Robin games. In large part, because they were fully healthy for the first time since fucking October. They looked every bit the Stanley Cup contender they are.
Colorado opened Round Robin play against the current Cup champion St. Louis Blues. While the 2-1 final scoreline doesn’t scream excitement and promise, the game itself was a completely different story. The Avs put on a show for almost all of the first period. They outshot the Blues heavily and had a lion share of the possession. Yet they found themselves down one at the end of the period. David Perron beat Grubauer with a one-timer on the PP with a couple minutes remaining in the first. The second period did not see much action, but that was to change with the start of the third period. The Avs started the third-period aggressively, and five minutes in were finally rewarded with a goal by non-other than the Gravy Train, Ryan Graves. The game really opened up from this point on, with both squads pushing for the win. With a little over a minute remaining in the Alex Steen hooked Burakovsky send Colorado to the PP. When I say the first unit was buzzing, I mean they were fucking BUZZZZZZZZZZING. They were snapping the puck around with so much pace and quality it almost seemed inevitable they were gonna score. But with the 30 seconds remaining, Kadri missed a wide-open net. At this point, I figured OT was inevitable, and let me tell you it’s been a long time since I’ve been that happy to be wrong. With two seconds remaining Landy rang the puck off the post, and it dropped in the blue paint just out of reach of the surrounding Blues players and goalie, but not out of reach of Nazem Kadri. Naz whacked the puck into the back of the net with .1 of a second remaining, .1 of a fucking second! I screamed, I screamed like girls used to scream when The Beatles rolled through town. I’ve never, and probably will never, see a goal that could bring that obscene of a sound out of my mouth. That game was one for the history books, and damn, was it a perfect re-introduction to just how incredible this team is. With that said, it wasn’t even close to the best performance the Avs put in last week.
The Colorado Avalanche gave the Dallas Stars an absolute shit-kicking in their second RR game. I’m not sure I’ve seen the Avs put in a 60-minute performance like that in my entire life. They controlled the game from the puck drop until the final whistle. While the 4-0 scoreline is a pretty clear indication of how dominant the Avs were, it yet again doesn’t do their performance justice. Colorado outshot Dallas 40-27, and if it weren’t for a heroic performance by Khudobin, could have put up 2-3 more goals. As good as Dobby was, Francouz was just as good and better. Frankie obviously recorded his first playoff shutout and made quite a few ten bell saves when he was asked to. On top of all that, the Avs special teams were just that, special. They were 2/5 on PP and were a clean two for two on the PK. Like I said, just an all-around phenomenal performance from the boys. While not every game can be that easy, it’s a great sign for where this team is at going forward.
The Avs completed their RR play with a matchup against the Vegas Golden Knights. This was a massive game for both teams as it decided who would get the first seed, and have “home ice” (last change) advantage through the rest of the playoffs. This game had a true playoff feel to, much more so than the previous two did. There were tons of momentum swings as both teams were able to control play for long periods of time. From an unbiased point of view, this is the matchup you want to see in the Western Conference Final. Both teams have tons of talent up and down their line-ups, and both love to play a really fast-paced game. I, on the other hand, would strongly prefer NOT to see this series, not because I don’t think the Avs would win, but because I think I might have a heart attack. I felt like I had just finished a workout when Alex Tuch finally won the game for Vegas in OT. While the Avs not getting the one seed is certainly a bummer, not having to play a rested Blackhawks team in the first round is not.
The Avs will instead have to play the Arizona Coyotes, in what seems to be a more favorable matchup. The Coyotes as a team have almost no playoff experience. In fact, this is the ‘Yotes first time in the playoffs since 2011-12. In all honesty, I think the Avs roll in this series, Arizona will be lucky to get this series to six games. So as much as I LOVE Phil Kessel, and I fucking love Phil, I think the Avs win it five.
P.S. Fuck NBC for their scheduling of this series. The latest start to any of the first four games is 3:30 MT. That’s ridiculously stupid, both of these teams play out West. So why in the absolute fuck are they playing so god damn early in the day?!? I’m big mad about this (obviously), and I think its kind of a slap in the face of both of these fan bases. I’m gonna go take a cold shower, see you next week.
The Snow Report 