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Avs Take the Division, Face Seattle Round 1 |
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Your Colorado Avalanche are Central Division victors, and to the victor go the spoils!
Home ice advantage in the playoffs helps, and with the Colorado MacKinnon's dispatching the Predators 4-3 on Friday, they indeed clinched the division title. Nathan MacKinnon was king this game, scoring a hat trick and 4 points to bring his new career high in points to 111 and goals to 42. His stat line this year is almost as beautiful as his goals he scored last night!
71 Games, 42 goals*, 69 Assists (heh)*, 111 Points *, +29 (double heh)*, 366 Shots *, 12 PPG*
*=tied or set new career highs
To have played so many fewer games than the other players around him in the NHL points race and to have this kind of season is truly impressive, and should earn MacKinnon a few more Hart Trophy votes this year as it was on the power of himself, and Mikko Rantanen that have the Avs sitting on top of the division to end the season. Now, the Avalanche look to take the Seattle Kraken in their first ever playoff appearance, and show them what the playoffs is all about.
The interesting twist: There are former Avs coming back to town, except on the other side.
Phillip Grubauer: The former Avalanche netminder has had a bit of a rocky start to his post Avalanche career after signing a large contract a few years back. This year, he went 17-14-4 with a less than impressive 0.895 save percentage.
Andre Burakovsky: Last years Avalanche sniper who fought through the pain in the playoffs has had an injury filled year after signing a rich deal to join the Kraken. He played in 49 games, with 13 goals, 26 assists, and hasn't played a game since February 7th where he plays 21 seconds against the NYI.
Lets look at how these teams match up:
Offense: Edge Colorado Avalanche
Look. The Kraken made the playoffs and I'm happy they're here! Jared McCann had an unbelievable year scoring 40 goals and 70 points... Vince Dunn scored 14 goals and 64 points from the blueline which is amazing! Beniers started his career off strong with 24 goals and 57 points...
But this is the Avalanche we are talking about.
Nathan MacKinnon, 111 points.
Mikko Rantanen, 105 points and 55 goals.
Cale Makar, 66 points, Norris/Smythe winner from last year.
Offense is what Colorado does. They're fast, they're scary, they transition with speed... This against the suspect goaltending of Martin Jones and Phillipp Grubauer could end up being rough on the confidence of these two netminders.
Defense: Edge Colorado
Seattle has some solid defensive players. Dunn as mentioned with 64 points, Larsson and Oleksiak are hard nosed shut down guys.. The team has some pieces!
But Colorado has a Cale Makar (As long as he's actually healthy for the playoffs!), combined with Devon Toews, Samuel Girard, Bowen Byram, and their own hardnosed defensemen in Josh Manson, Erik Johnson, and Jack Johnson.
Goaltending: Clear Edge Colorado
Alexandar Georgiev has been hands down a wonderful goalie for the Avalanche this year. Career highs in Games, Wins, and so many more categories. When you put this against the tandem of Grubauer and Martin, I think the Avalanche take this series with ease *knock on wood*.
Avalanche will down the Kraken in 5 games, if I had to put money on it!
Notes:
I attended the Toronto Blue Jays home opener this week while at a work conference in Toronto and man... what an atmosphere. 45,000 fans in a packed arena, and the show that the team put on was 2nd to none. I know this is a hockey blog, but I just wanted to mention how amazing the atmosphere was!
Colorado Avalanche Blogger • 
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