It’s been a self-proclaimed trying year for the Vegas Golden Knights, and they’d love nothing more than to cap it off with a trip to the Stanley Cup Finals. The only thing standing in their way… is the President’s Trophy-winning Colorado Avalanche.
Make no mistake: the Avalanche are the best team in the league, and on paper they’re the better team in the series. The Golden Knights have a steep hill to climb if they don’t want to get caught in the snowdrift. Here are the three biggest challenges they’ll face as they try to topple the big bad Avs.
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The Golden Knights are a much stronger team with William Karlsson back in the lineup. However, there’s no denying that the Avalanche have some of, if not the, best center depth in the league. They made a buzzer-beater move for Nazem Kadri at the deadline, which took them from exceptional to elite. Nathan MacKinnon, Brock Nelson, and Jack Drury round out the rest of the center corps— they’re so deep down the middle, Nic Roy is slotting in on the wing.
The Avalanche centermen are all 200-foot players who are just as strong on the defensive side of the puck as they are offensively. Brock Nelson was a Selke finalist, and Nathan MacKinnon is no slouch defensively.
Shea Theodore has played like a man possessed through 12 postseason games with four goals, one an overtime game-winner, and nine points. Noah Hanifin, too, has six assists in 12 games. Otherwise, the Golden Knights haven’t gotten much from their defenseman in terms of offense this postseason. Rasmus Andersson has three assists in 12 games, and Kaedan Korczak has one in nine.
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Cale Makar is the best defenseman in the world, but he’s far from the only offensively gifted defenseman on the Avalanche roster. Devon Toews, Makar’s Olympic teammate and perpetual d partner, is having himself a postseason with two goals and eight points in nine games.
It’s not just the usual suspects producing for the Avalanche. Sam Malinski, a 27-year-old undrafted free agent out of Lakeville, Minnesota, continues to impress in his elevated role and has a goal and three points in nine games. Brett Kulak is known more for his steady defensive play, but he brings quite a bit to the table offensively… and that’s before his overtime series-clinching goal against the Minnesota Wild.
I know, I know, I already brushed on MacKinnon when discussing the Avalanche’s center depth. But what he’s doing this postseason is nothing short of remarkable, even by his standards. MacKinnon has seven goals and six assists– all primary– in nine games. He drives the offense both at 5-on-5 and on the power play, as he’s scored three of his seven goals on the man advantage.
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But, as it often is with great players, it’s not just the goals and assists that matter when looking at MacKinnon. He’s also drawn six penalties and is 53.7% in the face-off dot. The Avalanche are a force of nature this year, and MacKinnon is more than doing his part to try and help his team get across the finish line. If the Golden Knights can’t contain him, or at least limit his impact, this could be a short series.
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