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2021 Round 2 Quarter Finals : Las Vegas Golden Knights vs Colorado Avalanche (VGK Win 4-2)


Who is Championship Material Here?  

9 members have voted

  1. 1. Who is Championship Material Here?

    • Vegas Lance Through the Avs in 4
      0
    • Vegas Make Short Work of Colorado and Slice'em Up in 5
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    • Vegas Outduels Colorado and Pierces Their Rocky Hearts in 6
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    • Vegas Wins a Brutal Affair That Sees Them Drag the Colorado Carcass Back Home in 7
    • Avlanche Crush Those Mortal Knights in 4
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    • Avalanche Block All Roads To Knights Success in 5
    • Avalanche Crack a Bit, But Still Have More Than Enough to Finish Off Vegas in 6
    • Avalanche Bury a Valiant Knights Group for Good in 7


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Series talk for the Knights and Avs go right here.

Las Vegas, once again, trying to reach the mountain top after falling short a couple times prior... Avalanche, still trying to cement themselves as one of the league's annual elite teams, also trying for that mountain top.

Interesting case of what I still believe to be a top heavy, start loaded Avalanche team vs. a more workmanlike 4 line Vegas team.
Established, but aging, former SC winning goalie in Marc Andre Fleury in the nets for Vegas............ up n comer, and just like his team, still trying to prove he belongs up top, goaltender in Philip Grubauer for the Avalanche.

There are a number of really fast teams in the NHL, but Colorado may be the fastest of them all and that speed will give the Knights fits.
Vegas had some trouble at times with Minnesota using some speed to exploit some holes in the Vegas defense. Wild couldn't always capitalize, but the Knights may find if they do the same against the Avs, especially if its MacKinnon's top line, they will pay dearly for those same lapses in coverage.
Oh, and keeping out of the box is a given for LV.

Golden Knights still do have a solid team, albeit without mega stars on the skater ranks, lines 1-4 and pairs 1-3, and everyone will need to be at their best to exploit what could be a Colorado weakness: line depth beyond MacKinnon, and maybe the Colorado bottom pairing of what looks to be Conor Timmins and Patrik Nemeth.
And making goalie Philip Grubauer work is probably a good idea as well, as he has been great, but LV need to make him keep proving he isn't a flash in season.
Max Pacioretty available again for the Knights is very good for the team as it not only provides them with another good scorer, but allows the team to slot its remaining skaters better than not having him in.

Both teams should bring on the physicality and it really wouldn't surprise me if lots of penalties were handed out over the course of this series..... of course, as I mentioned, Vegas better not find itself constantly on the short end. 

Two teams looking to make the Final Four.....head to head, should be interesting for even fans outside of Vegas and Denver.

Edited by TropicalFruitGirl26
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Went Vegas in 7.
I feel the Knights still have it in them to make runs like they have in the past....but perhaps this time actually win it all?

 

I have NOT bought into the Colorado hype all season, not fully sold they are a clear cut Cup contender, although they are slowly proving that they are.
Team depth has been better than ever and Philip Grubauer seems to be showing he is a legit NHL #1, but I will still be a hard ass about it and say, I want MORE proof as we've seen goalies look wonderful one year transitioning from backup to starter, then look every bit the part of a backup after that.
 

Vegas can't have lapses in coverage and judgement like they did against Minnesota, because where the Wild couldn't take advantage of certain situations, the Avalanche, especially if its their top line, certainly will.
 

I expect this series to be very physical ....though Vegas best not be stupid about it and find itself constantly short handed.

Should be a very interesting series with a contrast of team makeup, but yea, gonna go with the been there, done that, but not quite won it all yet Knights over these relative "new guys" to the Championship scene of the Avs.
 

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The only way VGK wins this, is if there happens to be more injuries to key Avs players than Goldies' players. MacKinnon is way better than Stone, Rantanen outscores Tuch and Marchessault together, Makar can't be even compared to any VGK defenseman, Landeskog is every bit as nasty as Reaves or Hague. The only player that might be better for VGK is Fleury. I'd expect the Avs won't have a problem with him. It's going to be fun to see it turns out.

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Should be a fun series.

 

The Avalanche and Golden Knights split their eight games this season, and Vegas had a plus-one goal differential. The contests were close with five games decided by one goal, including Colorado’s 2-1 win at Las Vegas in the final week of the regular season. That victory helped the Avs claim the Presidents’ Trophy. Both Vegas and Colorado finished with 82 points, but the Avs won because of regulation wins tiebreaker.

 

One Key here .... The Avalanche will start the series Sunday without center Nazam Kadri. He was suspended eight games by the NHL for this hit on St. Louis Blues forward Justin Falk. Kadri has served two games of his supsension, and the NHL Players Association filed an appeal on Kadri’s behalf. The Avalanche and Kadri are waiting for NHL commissioner Gary Bettman to make a ruling on the appeal.

 

It’s strength versus strength with the Golden Knights featuring one of the best defenses in the NHL along with a deep rotation of lines and solid scorers. The Avalanche have the league’s most dynamic offensive attack, and controlled the puck better than any team in the league. The Avs ranked first league-wide in Corsi percentage, shot share, scoring chance share and expected goal share. They also gave up the fewest shots on net and scoring chances of any team during 5-on-5 play. 

 

Goaltenders Marc-Andre Fleury and Philipp Grubauer had goals against averages below 2.0 to rank top-3 in the league. 

 

This should be an Epic series .... going with the Avs in 7 but just barely.

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I'm going Vegas in 7. For as tremendous as their top line is, and that their second line is playing well, I don't trust the depth or goaltending of the Avs enough. Until Grubauer proves he can be very good when it's all on the line, I'm a skeptic. MAF has a little more championship experience, and Vegas has more pivotal players with championship experience, now with Alex Pietrangelo ..although the Avs have Saad and Burakovsky. I think the Golden Knights will wear them down with their physical play, eventually. They are one of the few teams that can skate well with Colorado, also. It should be a tremendously fun series to watch.

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I hope you guys are right on this series going on to game seven. If they are that even, it means we'll see some of the season's best hockey played right there in that series.

 

I forgot about that Kadri suspension. That hurts the Avs pretty badly. 8 games is just ridiculous (4 games maximum). The Avs are lacking depth, but VGK has problems in scoring. I'd say MacKinnon's line is uncontainable for them. If MacKinnon is playing healthy, their first line can decide the games. Landeskog will be able to screen Fleury, Rantanen, Makar, and MacKinnon can score regularly on a screened goalie, and pretty often on a non-screened top goalie as well. The Avs goal tending is that big question mark, though.

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  • TropicalFruitGirl26 changed the title to 2021 Round 2 Quarter Finals : Las Vegas Golden Knights vs Colorado Avalanche (COL Leads 1-0)
  • TropicalFruitGirl26 changed the title to 2021 Round 2 Quarter Finals : Las Vegas Golden Knights vs Colorado Avalanche (COL Leads 2-0)
On 5/31/2021 at 10:00 AM, lynxrattle said:

What a treat it was to watch the Avs first line (although I really hate them). Great hockey. McDavid should watch tapes of them playing. Really excellent.

 

Two things.

 

1) What is Connor McDavid supposed to do? When he's on the ice, the Oilers are the best team in the NHL, and when he's off, they're the worst. Because there's no depth, he's playing so much more than anybody else, so that by the time the playoffs arrived, he'd played almost 21 hours of hockey this year, and Colorado's top line (which gets support from incredible team depth) had only played 16.

 

2) The refs refuse to call any infraction committed against McDavid. An analyst working for the Devils re-watched every shift of his in the playoffs this year, and counted 30 infractions committed against him in the 4 games against Winnipeg, with absolutely none resulting in penalties being called. These weren't ticky-tack plays, but 30 clear fouls. If only 1/3 of them are called, the Oilers possibly win that series. Last year against Chicago, where it was more of the same thing: being sat on, hooked, held, headlocked, all while the puck is in play, and there wasn't a penalty called then either. Nathan MacKinnon, who also puts up with obstruction and abuse, has drawn 6 penalties in 6 games this playoffs.

 

 

Edited by JR Ewing
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2 hours ago, JR Ewing said:

 

Two things.

 

1) What is Connor McDavid supposed to do? When he's on the ice, the Oilers are the best team in the NHL, and when he's off, they're the worst. Because there's no depth, he's playing so much more than anybody else, so that by the time the playoffs arrived, he'd played almost 21 hours of hockey this year, and Colorado's top line (which gets support from incredible team depth) had only played 16.

 

2) The refs refuse to call any infraction committed against McDavid. An analyst working for the Devils re-watched every shift of his in the playoffs this year, and counted 30 infractions committed against him in the 4 games against Winnipeg, with absolutely none resulting in penalties being called. These weren't ticky-tack plays, but 30 clear fouls. If only 1/3 of them are called, the Oilers possibly win that series. Last year against Chicago, where it was more of the same thing: being sat on, hooked, held, headlocked, all while the puck is in play, and there wasn't a penalty called then either. Nathan MacKinnon, who also puts up with obstruction and abuse, has drawn 6 penalties in 6 games this playoffs.

 

 

I agree on the infraction side. They should start following the rule book more. In Gretzky's time the enforcers could have tried to put a stop to blatant fouls, now it should be the refs.

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8 hours ago, JR Ewing said:

These weren't ticky-tack plays, but 30 clear fouls. If only 1/3 of them are called, the Oilers possibly win that series.


Maybe ice hockey needs soccer’s Video Assistant Referee (VAR) to concurrently examine videotape of suspected transgressions as play on the ice continues, then contact the on-ice ref to stop play if VAR officials feel a change in call is appropriate.

 

Nice in theory, I think it has been a good thing for soccer.  But...the pace of ice hockey is so much faster that the ability to real-time review an incident before too much else happens on the ice would be more difficult.  A team is more likely to have scored before VAR review is complete in hockey than in soccer. 
 

Maybe only fixable by better standard refereeing, then (?)

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There's been good enough refereeing even in the near past. It's not impossible. The NHL would have to look at the problem, find their mistakes, and make sure the referees have a working mentor - pupil type of system going on. The experienced refs showing the inexperienced refs what to do. It would probably take some money and time to sort the problems out, but players getting injured or potential new fans disinterested is costly as well.

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