By Jordan Long
The Colorado Avalanche opened up the NHL playoffs as one of the favorites to win the Cup. They had secured home ice advantage by being the top team in the NHL standings. The first round just ended as they swept the St. Louis Blues.
The Blues were hoping to knock off the Colorado Avalanche. In fact, even before game 1, the captain of the Blues, Ryan O’Reilly was confident they would. According to thescore.com, O’Reilly said, “It’s exciting for us. We know we can beat this team and do some damage here. We know that they have a lot of talent over there and they work hard, but for us, it’s an exciting challenge. We’re going to have some fun and we’re going to beat them.”
The Avalanche had bulletin board material and motivation heading into the series. The Avalanche weren’t going to respond, but let their game do the talking.
Colorado dominated the Blues in a 4 game sweep. Colorado outscored the Blues in the series 20-7. Colorado’s offense couldn’t do anything wrong. They had scoring chances and put pressure on Blues’ goaltender Jordan Bennington. Bennington didn’t allow many rebounds and covered the puck when he could. Bennington kept the Blues in this series even though the score may not indicate it. He ended with a goals against average of 3.59 and a save percentage of .899.
For Colorado, goaltender Philipp Grubauer ended the series with a 1.75 goals against average. His save percentage was an unbelievable .936.
Colorado’s special teams led the way against the Blues. When Colorado had the man advantage, they set up the power play. These were scoring chances. The Blues couldn’t lift the puck out of the defensive zone and Colorado kept the puck in. They scored on an impressive 50% of their power plays.
The power play kill could use some work heading into the next series. Colorado couldn’t work the puck out of the zone allowing the Blues to keep the puck in Colorado’s defensive zone. Colorado killed off 77.8% of the penalties they took in the series. That number must be better whoever the next opponent is.
This was Colorado’s 3rd sweep since moving to Colorado. Every other time they have swept a team in the postseason, they would go on to win the Cup. In 1996, Colorado beat the Florida Panthers in 4 games. That was in the Stanley Cup Final. In 2001, they knocked off Vancouver in the 1st-round. They were able to win the Cup that year as well.
Colorado now has much needed rest. They await the winner of the Vegas Golden Knights and the Minnesota Wild series. Colorado had success with both of these teams in the regular season. Colorado was 4-3-1 playing the Knights. Against Minnesota, Colorado ended with a record of 5-2-1. The Knights are most likely going to be the Avs opponent since they are up 3-1 on Minnesota, but anything is possible.
No matter who they play, Colorado will need to be ready. The Avalanche must be able to control the games. They were lucky against St. Louis not blowing 2 goal leads. They were close. When they had a two goal lead, they just went to defense. The offense stopped. The Blues offense went to work and cut the leads to 1 in both games, but that was it. St. Louis could never find the tying goal. Against Vegas or Minnesota, when they have a two goal lead, they can’t just play defense. One break down on defense and that could be a goal cutting the Avs lead. The momentum would be on the opponents’ side and that could mean more pressure which might be a tied game if they are able to push another puck past Grubauer. Colorado knows both of them well and it won’t be easy. Colorado is looking forward to the challenge. Hopefully, whoever it is, Colorado beats them and keeps marching toward the ultimate goal, the Stanley Cup.
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