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So much for home-ice "advantage"

August 10, 2020, 7:46 PM ET [1 Comments]
Rick Sadowski
Colorado Avalanche Blogger •Avalanche Insider • RSSArchiveCONTACT
Home-ice advantage won’t mean a whole lot in these Stanley Cup playoffs, since no one will actually get to play on home ice. Having last change is about the only advantage.

You can thank the COVID-19 pandemic for that, as the Western Conference games will be played at Rogers Place in Edmonton, and the Eastern Conference games will be played Scotiabank Arena in Toronto.

The Avalanche, the No. 2 seed in the West, will have “home” ice starting Wednesday in Game 1 of the best-of-7 first-round series against the No. 7 Arizona Coyotes. Game time is 3:30 p.m. MT.

“No question, it’s different,” coach Jared Bednar said Monday. “It’s going to be different this year. I mean, there’s no way around it, home ice isn’t the traditional home ice that it would have been -- playing in front of your fans, the hostility you face going into the other city and into the atmosphere where everyone’s rooting for their team and giving them confidence, and the momentum you can get from that. It’s just not the same. It was proven in the qualifying rounds.

“There’s an advantage to having home ice, however slight it may be, there’s an advantage to it. It gives you options if you so choose to use them with some match-ups, but it’s not the advantage you’d have in a regular playoff setting.”

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Here’s the schedule, all times MT

Western Conference First Round
Wed., Aug. 12, 3:30 p.m. -- ARIZONA NBCSN, SN360, TVAS
Fri. Aug. 14, noon -- ARIZONA NHLN, SN360, TVAS
Sat., Aug. 15, 1 p.m. -- Arizona CNBC, SN360, TVAS
Mon., Aug. 17, 3:30 p.m. -- Arizona NBCSN, FX-CA, TVAS
*Wed., Aug. 19, TBD -- ARIZONA
*Fri., Aug. 21, TBD -- Arizona
*Sun., Aug. 23, TBD -- ARIZONA


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Bednar said he’s decided on his starter for Game 1, but he wouldn’t say whether it will be Philipp Grubauer or Pavel Francouz. The guess here is Grubauer.

Chances are Francouz will play one of the weekend games, because it will be a back-to-back situation.

“I see it as a positive,” Bednar said. “We were aware that there could be a potential back-to-back in this series after seeing it in the qualifying rounds. We feel real confident in both of our goalies and to be able to have the option to go to one guy or another guy, especially in the back-to-back, is a plus, an added positive for our team.”

Grubauer started two of the three round-robin games and went 1-0-1 with a 2.45 goals-against average and .914 save percentage. Francouz made 27 saves in a 4-0 win against Dallas.

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Nathan MacKinnon, on his thoughts heading into the playoffs:

“I think for everyone in our group that every year you play in the NHL, you realize you don’t have many chances. For me, this feels like my first real chance to win, which really excites me. It excites everyone. Obviously it’s not easy to get into this position; we’re second in the West … I feel comfortable. This is my fourth playoffs, third straight with everyone else. I feel good and hopefully I can be a key guy in the first round.”

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Landeskog, a 4-year-old gelding named after Avalanche captain Gabriel Landeskog, won his third race in six career starts Saturday, his first of 2020, at Ellis Park in Henderson, Ky.

The horse is owned by Avalanche defenseman Erik Johnson, who didn’t get to watch because he was playing against Vegas in a round-robin game at the same time.

"It's a big win, Gabe was excited," Johnson said Monday. "But we actually had a game so we weren’t paying attention; we found out after. Yeah, it was cool, but it’s not really our primary focus right now. It was something to laugh about with the guys after the game.”

The horse paid $2.40 to win the 6-furlong race with a $45,000 purse. It was his fifth top-2 finish.

“I heard he won the other day, so that’s good,” Bednar said. “It’s something that when it comes to horse racing that EJ’s passionate about. It seems to be catching on a little bit around our room. Guys are rooting for him and for his horses to have success, and guys keep an eye on that in their down time.

“Everyone kind of has their hobbies and that’s something that EJ likes so we all root for him to have success when it comes to that.”



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