DENVER – Ball Arena was celebrating Thursday night as the team ended the regular season with a win over Edmonton and Nathan MacKinnon set the franchise record for points in a season at 140.
This was good for the fans in Colorado, as there hasn’t been much to cheer about lately. Thursday’s 5-1 victory was only the third win for the Avalanche since April 1. The other two wins came against the Minnesota Wild.
The Avalanche now focus their attention to a difficult first round matchup against the Winnipeg Jets. Here is where fans may be concerned. The Avalanche are 0-3 against the Jets this season, being outscored 17-4 in those three games. Even if we throw out the most recent matchup, which was not even a week ago, Winnipeg still outscores Colorado 10-4 in the other two games.
The biggest question for Colorado going into the playoffs is what kind of goaltending will the Avalanche have? Alexandar Georgiev has played 63 games this season and recorded 38 wins (2 fewer than last season having played in 62 games). Georgiev started the season strong with six straight wins, he ended the season with one win in his last six starts.
Justus Annunen has been backing up Georgiev for most of this season. His numbers aren’t bad (2.25 GAA and .928 SV% on the season) Annunen games are limited. He has only played in 14 games this season, going 8-4-1. In those 14 games, four of them have been against playoff teams where he went 2-1. Annunen didn’t start the April 13 game against Winnipeg, but did allow 3 goals in that 7-0 loss.
While these numbers don’t look good, they are not an indicator of what is to come. Rather, they are a reminder of the work the Avalanche have cut out for them.
Look back at the 2019 Stanley Cup Playoffs. There was a similar situation in the Eastern Conference with the Tampa Bay Lightning playing the Columbus Blue Jackets. Tampa Bay had gone 3-0 against Columbus that season, outscoring the Blue Jackets 17-3 (couldn’t ask for a better comparison, I know). Columbus then shocked the league by beating the Lightning in a four game sweep.
Columbus would put up a 6 game fight against the eventual Eastern Conference Champion Boston Bruins that year, but Colorado fans should focus on the first round to start.
Here is the first round schedule for the Jets and Avalanche:
Game 1 – Colorado at Winnipeg – Sunday, April 21 at 5 p.m.
Game 2 – Colorado at Winnipeg – Tuesday, April 23 at 7:30 p.m.
Game 3 – Winnipeg at Colorado – Friday, April 26 at 8 p.m.
Game 4 – Winnipeg at Colorado – Sunday, April 28 at 12:30 p.m.
Game 5 – Colorado at Winnipeg – Tuesday, April 30 – TBD *
Game 6 – Winnipeg at Colorado – Thursday, May 2 – TBD *
Game 7 – Colorado at Winnipeg – Saturday, May 4 – TBD *
* if necessary
You must be logged in to post a comment.