The Colorado Avalanche and Vegas Golden Knights are ready to get the Western Conference Final started tonight at Ball Arena in Downtown Denver!
The Golden Knights represent the Pacific Division after series victories over the Utah Mammoth and Anaheim Ducks.
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The Avalanche have lost just one game so far these playoffs after sweeping the LA Kings and besting the Minnesota Wild in five games, but will go without Norris candidate Cale Makar in game one.
The first chapter of this seven-game series is of the utmost importance, as the winner of game one has gone on to win the playoff series 68.2% of the time (historically speaking).
Colorado Avalanche: 8-1
The Opponent: Vegas Golden Knights (8-4)
Time: 6:00 p.m. MT
Watch: ESPN+, ESPN
Listen: Altitude Sports Radio, 92.5 FM
Colorado Avalanche
There were some pretty glaring questions for the Avalanche coming into this series regarding the health status, namely, regarding Cale Makar.
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We have gotten confirmation via an announcement from Jared Bednar that Cale Makar will not play in game one.
This is a heavy blow to Colorado’s backend and likely means that recently recalled Alex Gagne, Jack Achan, or Nick Blankenburg will see playoff action in the bottom pairing. If any other defenders are still hurt, two of them would play.
With that in mind, a commitment to structure and support will be crucial this evening, as the Golden Knights will absolutely look to find favorable matchups.
I have three keys to a Colorado Avalanche victory:
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Stay out of the penalty box.
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Thrive in the environment.
Whenever you have guys that haven’t played much NHL hockey, much less playoff hockey, slotted into your backend, a commitment to the process is vital. The process is the fail-safe when a talent advantage may not exist, and the Avalanche take pride in it. That will need to be shown for the Avalanche to win game one.
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The Avs have made going to the sin-bin a far too common occurrence in the playoffs so far. Combine that with a clear and concise advantage at five-on-five against the competition so far, and you have plenty of reason to play things straight up. Vegas’ special teams aren’t to be tempted.
Ball Arena should be a madhouse tonight, as many fans still don’t like the Vegas Golden Knights after the 2021 playoff series, and, of course, the Avalanche appear plenty capable of winning it all. The Avs-friendly and raucous environment has the potential to deal a heavy blow to Vegas’ confidence.
Projected Lineup:
Gabriel Landeskog — Nathan MacKinnon — Martin Necas
Ross Colton — Brock Nelson — Nicolas Roy
Valeri Nichushkin — Nazem Kadri — Logan O’Connor
Parker Kelly — Jack Drury — Joel Kiviranta
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Devon Toews — Sam Malinski
Brett Kulak — Brent Burns
Alex Gagne — Josh Manson
Scott Wedgewood
MacKenzie Blackwood
It will be Scott Wedgewood back between the pipes for the Avalanche, which makes sense, seeing as he’s lost just one game these playoffs and came in and shut things down in Colorado’s game five comeback victory against Minny.
Vegas Golden Knights
The Vegas Knights have depth, particularly up the middle, and with the Avalanche missing Makar, expect Vegas’ head coach to be pretty active in getting his best skaters favorable matchups against Colorado’s bottom pair.
Torts has brought a lot of security to a team that couldn’t get consistent enough goaltending or results to take a strong hold of their division in the regular season. His arrival has ushered in another era of defensive focus in Vegas, similar to what we saw under Pete DeBoer.
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The Golden Knights present as a team capable of shutting things down like the LA Kings, but while having the talent to cash in on limited opportunities.
Mitch Marner leads all point scorers in these playoffs and has been a consistent performer for the Knights. His matchup and the challenges he will face against this Avalanche team are a much taller task than what he saw in the first two rounds, however.
Here are three keys to victory for the Golden Knights:
If the Avalanche have a key to victory that plays into the home crowd, the Golden Knights have to have the opposite as a key to their success. Quieting Avalanche fans and making things awkward in the building can frustrate a club.
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Vegas has shown the ability to win both low-scoring games and high-scoring games, but they’d be smart to limit Colorado’s flow and chances. Tough to see a goal fest not shaking out in Colorado’s favor.
Projected Lineup:
Ivan Barbashev — Jack Eichel — Pavel Dorofeyev
Brett Howden — William Karlsson — Mitch Marner
Brandon Saad — Tomas Hertl — Colton Sissons
Cole Smith — Nic Dowd — Keegan Kolesar
Brayden McNabb — Shea Theodore
Noah Hanifin — Rasmus Andersson
Ben Hutton — Dylan Coghlan
Carter Hart
Adin Hill
Carter Hart has been better in the postseason than he was in the regular season, but the gap between his floor and his ceiling is large compared to most starters. He could be one of Vegas best or worst players on any given night. Do with that what you will.
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