Round 1 - Avalanche vs Wild

[hf101]

Consider this a general discussion thread for the Avalanche vs Wild in Round 1

 

Regular season series (Avalanche lead 4-0-1)

Nov 29, 2013 Colorado 3, Minnesota 1

Nov 30, 2013 Minnesota 2, Colorado 3 (SO)

Dec 14, 2013 Minnesota 2, Colorado 1 (SO)

Jan 11, 2014 Colorado 4, Minnesota 2

Jan 30, 2014 Minnesota 4, Colorado 5

 

Your thoughts on the series...

[pilldoc]

No offense @hf101 but we have to wait and see what happens today.

 

http://www.sbnation.com/nhl/2014/4/13/5609762/nhl-playoff-picture-scenarios-matchups-2014

 

 

• Minnesota will play the winner of the Central, STL or COL
• Chicago will play the Central's No. 2 seed, COL or STL

  Who wins the Central?

The Colorado Avalanche and St. Louis Blues enter the season's final day with 111 points each. St. Louis hosts Detroit at 12:30 p.m. ET on NBC and TSN, while the Avalanche are on the road at Anaheim at 8 p.m. ET. Colorado will win the tiebreaker should the teams be tied at the end of the day, but if the Blues win and Colorado loses, St. Louis will take the Central Division crown.

The team that wins the Central will face the Minnesota Wild in the first round. The team that finishes second will face the Chicago Blackhawks. Both the Avs and the Blues will have home ice advantage in their first round matchups.

[pilldoc]

Ok with the Blues losing to Detroit today, that now wraps up the Divison for Colorado.  Colorado will win with the division (even if they lose tonght to the Ducks) based on the tie breaker of Regulation + OT wins.

 

Colorado will now play Minnesota in 1st round.

Chicago will play the Blues.

Edited April 13, 2014 by pilldoc

[ruxpin]

Like HF said doc

[pilldoc]

@ruxpin I should have just kept my damm mouth shut and not make it all confusing!!!!      Turns out @hf101 had a crystal ball and got the match-up right anyway!

Edited April 13, 2014 by pilldoc

[hf101]

@pilldoc

 

thanks - I wasn't aware that the matchups weren't set.  

 

This is probably the worst draw for the Wild, but I do think they can push this series to a game 7 as they are one of the hottest teams going down the stretch.

Let's go Bryz.   - I do really have difficulty stating that.  :wacko:

 

Wild in 7

[pilldoc]

Gotta go with the Avs.  I really would like to see Minny move on, BUT, Bryz scares the hell out of me.  I know the Wild are playing great, but what Roy has done in Colorado is phenominal. Bryz will get you 2 games.

 

Avs in 6

[J0e Th0rnton]

Wild in 7. I love Suter and Parise and I think the kids have done amazing this year in Colorado, but will falter a bit come playoff time.

 

They looked so tired the last game with the sharks

[TropicalFruitGirl26]

I actually like this matchup for the Wild.

 

Not taking the Avalanche lightly at all, but they have lots of guys who simply are not used to being in the bright spotlight of the playoffs and Semyon Varlamov will find out real quick that the playoffs are a completely different animal than the regular season.

 

Minnesota, meanwhile, has a bit more vet experience (including many guys who were on last year's playoff team) to rely on..and yes, that includes playoff experience from Ilya Bryzgalov...and all the good n bad that go with him.

 

I would rather have had the Wild play the Avs over even the beat up Blues (black n blues? lol) or having to go over to the Pacific bracket and try to make their way through the West Coast teams.

 

I would say overall Colorado still is the favorite here, given their top to bottom skill (hey, you don't beat out teams like St. Louis and Chicago without being good after all), but I am going to call upset and have Minnesota take this in 6. Yep, I said 6!

 

If the Wild can limit Colorado's time on the PP (very lethal!) and offset the Av's speed with a good forechecking and puck possession game, then it is entirely possible for Minnesota to take this series.

Avs may  have won the season series by what appears to be a landslide (4-0-1) but those games were pretty competitive overall.

All Minny's lines are executing right now, the defense is there, and even Bryz is playing like he is taking goaltending seriously again.

 

Now, of course, if Bryz has a cosmo flashback of any sort, then all that can go straight to Hades...but we will see.

 

Go Wild!!

Edited April 13, 2014 by TropicalFruitGirl26

[yave1964]

Should be a surprisingly even series, depending upon the Wild netminding. Going with the Avalanche in six, maybe seven.

[brelic]

Avs in 6.

 

My buddies made fun of me at the start of the season when I picked so many Avs in my pool (Duchene, McKinnon, Varlamov, Hejda). I told them Patrick Roy is a winner, and this team will be excellent. I never thought they'd be as solid as this! 

 

Love this team. Great young players, and they're hungry.

[mojo1917]

tough one to call, the wild have been playing playoff hockey for a month are they rolling or spent.?

I say rolling, a more veteran team takes advantage of the Avalanches' youth and escape in 6 games.

[Polaris922]

Avs in 6. Despite Duchesne still out the first two. Varlamov has some playoff experience and he's really come into his own this year. This is a growing team and I think the Wild will be simply overwhelmed with their speed.

And for all the picking on Fleury for his past two playoff years, Bryzgalov was no better when last seen in the post season.

Edited April 16, 2014 by Polaris922

[AJgoal]

Bryzgalov posts a .920+sv% on the way to Minnesota's first Cup. You heard it here first.

[hf101]

Game 5 has to be the worst ref'd game I've seen thus far.    Call the penalties!  Call the OFF SIDES!

[TropicalFruitGirl26]

Game 5 has to be the worst ref'd game I've seen thus far.    Call the penalties!  Call the OFF SIDES!

 

I generally am not the kind who goes on rants about officiating...but that last game WAS horrible!

 

How many hacks, spears, crosschecks...and the worst..a flippin HOLD/INTERFERENCE on Coyle when the Avs had the pulled goalie, that weren't called!?

 

 

Avs got away with ALOT of garbage during the game...starting with guys like Cody McCleod, whom you would expect 'non hockey' from..but it wasn't limited to just him.

Gabriel Landeskog on many occasions was guilty of all sorts of nonsense that he got away with...THEN has the nerve to act indignant whenever a Wild player gave him a bit of his own medicine.

 

Hey...Minnesota allowed the tying goal and then lost it in OT, but the bottom line was, the overall flow of the game was dictated by the refs non calls...and THAT is a damned shame!

[hf101]

I generally am not the kind who goes on rants about officiating...but that last game WAS horrible!

 

How many hacks, spears, crosschecks...and the worst..a flippin HOLD/INTERFERENCE on Coyle when the Avs had the pulled goalie, that weren't called!?

 

 

Avs got away with ALOT of garbage during the game...starting with guys like Cody McCleod, whom you would expect 'non hockey' from..but it wasn't limited to just him.

Gabriel Landeskog on many occasions was guilty of all sorts of nonsense that he got away with...THEN has the nerve to act indignant whenever a Wild player gave him a bit of his own medicine.

 

Hey...Minnesota allowed the tying goal and then lost it in OT, but the bottom line was, the overall flow of the game was dictated by the refs non calls...and THAT is a damned shame!

 

^^^ THIS.

 

Landeskog should have had gotten an extra penalty for the shove he gave Koivu's head into the boards.  That game clearly was the worst officiated game of the playoffs thus far and the NHL hasn't admitted that the refs missed the off sides for the tying goal.  

 

unbelieveable

[TropicalFruitGirl26]

I guess if Wild fans need to look for a silver lining in this debacle is that they have Game 6 at home and so far, the home team has won all their games. Wild need to make sure that continues to hold true for the next game...although, there is NO way around the fact that even if they do that, they still need to win at Pepsi Center.

 

Also no guarantees that the refs won't have their collective heads up their asses either....

 

Lots of theories as to why the home team has won all the games, but I think the biggest one has to be matchups.

Home team gets last change on the ice, and I think that plays real big into what goes on during the game.

Despite what many odds-makers and other various media would have fans believe, the Avs were NOT that big a favorites over Minnesota at the start of this series and the proof is in the playing.

Line matchups are making all the difference in this series.

 

Minny has played the Avs tough and close, and in many cases, flat out OUT PLAYED them...had it not been for stellar performances by Semyon Varlamov bailing out his swiss cheese defense, Nate MacKinnon putting on individual efforts, and a little overall help from the officials, I have NO problem stating Minnesota possibly could have been up 3-1 at some point, possibly finishing off the series yesterday. 

 

I know the Wild have shot themselves in the foot on a few occasions too with bad turnovers and Bryz being Bryz early on in the series, but still, I don't see how the Avs can be said to have achieved 3-2 series lead status by being the superior TEAM.

 

Wild somehow, someway, have to dig deep and overcome the trends....win two in a row (one on the road), and refs be damned, pull out a collective rabbit out of their goalie masks....they simply cannot lose again this series. Bottom line.

[Polaris922]

How many threads go over this? Lol. Disagree with you guys but put it in the "jobbed" thread.

[TropicalFruitGirl26]

Not expecting too much different from Minnesota when the series resumes tomorrow night.

Other than the obligatory "protect the puck" and "no hapless giveaways", the gameplans they have employed have worked pretty well to this point.

 

Nate MacKinnon, while obviously dangerous, seems to have that extra gear back in Denver...not so much on the road these playoffs so far.

Again, probably coming down to matchups and Minnesota getting certain guys on the ice at will whenever he is on.

 

No real need to change very much for Game 6. Home game for Minny, they will have last change, and their structured defense, transition to offense and damned good forechecking game has been the right recipe.

The fact that Semyon Varlamov has been there to foil many Wild scoring opportunities simply should not deter Minny players from continuing to do what they've been doing.

Big difference of course is, they have no room for failure from here on out in the series.

 

Perhaps they could pick up the physicality just a bit, but really, with the style they have employed against Colorado, even that may not be necessary. Of course, if Wild players get chances to finish big, clean checks on Avs players, they should go for them no doubt....just don't abandon the gameplan in order to do so.

 

One other thing I noticed in Minnesota's game:

When they have a lead going late into the game, for some reason, they seem to back off just a bit on the Avalanche...almost as if they are content to sit on the lead.

Perhaps a tweak to continue to play the same aggresive puck moving style all the way through...whether up by a goal or up by three goals...can help offset any late game Avalanche heroics.

I think Coach Roy sees that as well and is even MORE confident pulling his goalie early to gain an advantage: After all, if the Wild seem content to sit on a lead, there is less a chance for them to make a quick beeline to the empty net.

Even failing that, he could always send an Avs player to full wrap tackle any Minnesota player attempting to make a first down on the empty net....  ^_^

[Buffalo Rick]

Colorado sucks my balls

[TropicalFruitGirl26]

Game 7.

In Denver.

Where Nate MacKinnon seemingly transforms into 'Beast Mode'.

 

Wild will certainly have their work cut out for them....especially when you consider that Matt Duchesne will be playing as well.

 

Minny is going to HAVE to buck the trend of 'home team winning all the games'. Simple as that.

They certainly have played well enough in previous road games to deserve wins, but at the end of the day, for whatever reasons, they just haven't gotten the W's and if that continues, then they will be going home until September exhibition games.

 

Guys like Zach Parise and Jason Pominville seemingly have woken up a bit lately...Minny will need them to be at their best for tonight's game.

Great to see young star players like Mikael Granlund and Charlie Coyle mature right before Wild fans' collective eyes, but the big money guys have to show up and be big money players.

 

Match-ups will NOT be in favor of the Wild tonight and that has led to guys like Nate MacKinnon to run loose almost at will...the Minnesota defense will simply have to play their 'zone style' to perfection, while Darcy Kuemper will have to be a wall in order to contain not only Mackinnon, but the rest of the talented Avs forwards.

 

Very excited and looking forward to this game, but must admit at being a bit nervous about how the Wild will fare. Even though I now they have played well on the road and that certain things didn't go their way that SHOULD have previously, still, Avs are in the driver's seat and it falls on Minnesota to take away any comfort zones Colorado might have.

Easier said than done.

 

Go Wild!

[JohnnyDrama21]

It'll be a fun one simply because the Avs seem to come alive at home. I'm sure it won't be lacking in excitement, either.

[hf101]

It'll be a fun one simply because the Avs seem to come alive at home. I'm sure it won't be lacking in excitement, either.

 

Welcome.

Should be a great game as long as the refs call the game correctly, this series should have been over in Minny.

[JohnnyDrama21]

Welcome.

Should be a great game as long as the refs call the game correctly, this series should have been over in Minny.

 

There have been a few questionable calls both ways, to say the least.