Here we go. Finally, the Avalanche is set to play its first playoff game in four years Thursday night against the Minnesota Wild at the Pepsi Center.
Twelve Avalanche players will be making their postseason debuts, including defenseman Erik Johnson, who is coming off his best season since joining Colorado from St. Louis in February 2011.
"I know Denver fans have been waiting a long time for a team to cheer for in the playoffs, so this is going to be a fun night for everybody, I think," Johnson said after the morning skate. "I think the biggest thing for us is we don't really care what we did in the regular season. It's what we're going to build here in the postseason. (The regular season) was all good, but that's done with."
The Avalanche went 4-0-1 against the Wild in regular-season play, but every game was close and Minnesota rode the hot goaltending of Ilya Bryzgalov down the stretch to finish with 98 points and gain the top wild-card position in the Western Conference. Bryzgalov went 7-1-3 following his March 4 acquisition from Edmonton in exchange for a fourth-round draft pick.
"I think we'd be in trouble if we looked at how we did against the Wild during the regular season," said Johnson, who is from Bloomington, Minn. "We had success against them, but I don't think that really matters coming into this series. They're probably looking at it the same way. It's going to be a good series, a tight series. I'd be surprised if any games are blowouts."
(Johnson managed to get some tickets for his dad, a Wild season ticketholder who gave up his opportunity for playoff tickets at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul a couple weeks ago when it looked like the Avalanche would be playing Chicago in the first round.)
Johnson has plenty of respect for Wild defenseman Ryan Suter, who averaged 29:24 in ice time and had a plus-15 plus/minus rating while collecting eight goals and 35 assists in 82 games.
"I love his game," Johnson said. "In my opinion I think he's the best D-man in the league. Not only can he play half the game or more for you, he's kind of a cool, calm and collected guy back there. It seems when he's on the ice their team plays with a lot more poise. He's definitely my pick for the Norris Trophy. I just think he's a terrific player.
"The thing that impresses me is, most guys have to pace themselves to play that much. He seems like he's doing it effortlessly. That might be because he's farm boy strong working on the farm all summer in Wisconsin to play the way he does. He's a terrific player at both ends of the ice and for us to be successful we have to make sure we're hard on him and eliminate him because he's going to play half the game."
Avalanche coach Patrick Roy also has plenty of respect for Suter.
"Do we have to know when he's there? Yeah, but he's going to be there maybe for 40 minutes," Roy said. "We're going to see a lot of him. The same thing with (Zach) Parise and (Mikko) Koivu. There's a lot of talent on the other side and (Suter) is certainly one of the best defenseman in the league. We have to know when he's on the ice, but we're not going to have a specific strategy for him."
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Rookie Nathan MacKinnon, defensemen Nate Guenin and forward Patrick Bordeleau are among the Avalanche players who will be getting their first taste of the Stanley Cup playoffs, which included a dressing room packed with a lot more media people than usual.
"It's going be to be fun," said MacKinnon, who will center a line with Ryan O'Reilly and PA Parenteau in the absence of injured Matt Duchene and John Mitchell. "It's been a long build-up. We prepared all year pretty much for this game, for this series. We have a lot of new guys participating in the playoffs for the first time and it's exciting. We're all kind of in this together, which is a lot of fun. For me personally, I just think a simple game will be the best game."
MacKinnon, who led all NHL rookies in scoring with 63 points in 82 games, also is eager to see how he and his linemates do against a solid defensive team like the Wild.
"We have some skills, but we're going to have to work to have some success," he said. "I played with PA a little bit and I built up some chemistry with 'Factor.' I think things are going to go pretty well. We have an offensive team with young and fast skaters, but we're going to have to be very good defensively. "We have to be patient as well. If they want to clog up the middle, we have to keep it simple. We'll have to find a way to fight through that."
Guenin, who signed as a free agent last summer, played in more NHL games this year (68) than he totaled (32) in seven previous seasons as a pro.
"I dreamt about this, but even back in camp I could tell there was something special brewing with this team," he said. "It doesn't surprise me one bit that the team's here, but for me ... if you told me after last season that I'd be sitting here getting ready for Game 1 with the division champs, I probably would have laughed at you."
Bordeleau, one of two Avalanche players to play in all 82 games this year -- MacKinnon was the other -- is excited about his playoff debut but trying to stay reasonably calm.
"You have to stay even keel," he said. "With me, I don't want to get too high and take stupid penalties. I'll control it pretty good. There's more (media) people here and that makes it fun and exciting. I'm sure the Pepsi Center is going to be packed and it's going to be rocking."
Here are the projected lineups:
WILD Zach Parise - Mikko Koivu - Charlie Coyle Matt Moulson - Mikael Granlund - Jason Pominville Matt Cooke - Kyle Brodziak - Nino Niederreiter Cody McCormick-Erik Haula- Stephane Veilleux
Ryan Suter - Jared Spurgeon Jonas Brodin-Marco Scandella Nate Prosser-Clayton Stoner
Ilya Bryzgalov John Curry
Scratched: Jonathon Blum, Dany Heatley, Darcy Kuemper Injured: Niklas Backstrom (abdominal), Keith Ballard (groin), Josh Harding (illness), Jason Zucker (quad) Suspended: Mike Rupp
AVALANCHE Ryan O’Reilly-Nathan MacKinnon-PA Parenteau Gabriel Landeskog-Paul Stastny-Jamie McGinn Cody McLeod-Marc-Andre Cliche-Max Talbot Paul Carey-Brad Malone-Patrick Bordeleau
Jan Hejda-Erik Johnson Nate Guenin-Tyson Barrie Andre Benoit-Nick Holden
Semyon Varlamov Jean-Sebastien Giguere
Scratched: Reto Berra, Stefan Elliott, Ryan Wilson Injured: Matt Duchene (knee), John Mitchell (concussion) Cory Sarich (back), Alex Tanguay (hip surgery)
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Here's the feature story I wrote on Semyon Varlamov that is on NHL.com, a site that has plenty of information on all of the playoff series.
Also, Joe Sakic spoke extensively about the team's progress in his first season as executive vice president of hockey operations.