pilldoc Posted August 21, 2020 Share Posted August 21, 2020 (edited) This will be the fifth playoff series between these two teams with both teams splitting the four previous series. They last met in the 2006 Western Conference Quarterfinals, which Colorado won in five games. Colorado won the Round Robin game between these two teams earlier in this year's playoffs 4–0. Dallas won all four games in this year's regular season series. Dates and Schedule TBD Edited September 5, 2020 by pilldoc Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yave1964 Posted August 21, 2020 Share Posted August 21, 2020 (edited) Look, i like Dallas with former Wing asst. GM Jim Nill, but facts are facts, Colorado has a must see TV date in the next round against the Knights. Avalalnche in six. Edited August 21, 2020 by yave1964 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Math Posted August 22, 2020 Share Posted August 22, 2020 The style opposition will be interesting. Avs are scary and are way more talented, but the Stars found a way to remain unbeaten against them in the regular season (4-0). If the Stars 4th line (Benn-Seguin-Radulov) remain unable to produce at the level of their albratross contracts, depth might be the series-deciding aspect. I'm looking forward to see the Heiskanen-Makar duel, and to a lesser extent the McKinnon-Gurianov one. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yave1964 Posted August 23, 2020 Share Posted August 23, 2020 Grubauer out, Erik Johnson too. Calvert banged up. This seems to be the way iy goes when i pick a team, lol Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OccamsRazor Posted August 23, 2020 Share Posted August 23, 2020 I have to go with Avs in 7....it's what I put on my bracket. However now they may have issues in goal. Unless Francouz can hold the fort down... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FD19372 Posted August 23, 2020 Share Posted August 23, 2020 I say Avs in 7. They looked out of sync offensively in Game 1, even though they still scored 3 goals. I think with Grubauer they would win this in 5, but I think this is going to be a back and forth tug of war now. The Stars still haven't shown me that they're consistent enough offensively, to make me think they can duplicate that performance, or close to it another 3 times. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Math Posted August 24, 2020 Share Posted August 24, 2020 The Avs didn't looked good in game #1, but everytime time McKinnon-Rantanen-Landeskog were on the ice, I was holding my breath. However, depth my also be a concern for them, the 3 others lines showed almost nothing. The key for the Stars will be to stay out of the box and never let them install their game by trying to be as much as possible in their own zone, practicing a solid fore-check. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TropicalFruitGirl26 Posted August 24, 2020 Share Posted August 24, 2020 Dallas played their usual tough defensive game....oh, and look...their stars (no pun intended) showed up on the scoresheet! As talented as the Avalanche are, they are going to find this series a rough go if Dallas' big players are wide awake, engaged, but more importantly, ALLOWED to play a more up temp style by their coach. People forget that it wasn't too long ago that Dallas with much of the same core, was one of the better offensive teams in the league.....with bad defense, bad structure, and mediocre goaltending with Niemi and Lehtonen. Well, much of that is fixed, except for some reason, the big offensive players all of a sudden were asked to play TOO MUCH defense, which turned them into a 2-1 win, or 3-2 loss type team. If they can find the right balance, it wouldn't be that much of a big upset if they can pull this series off against Colorado, who, IMO, still need "to learn to win" as a team. We will see. Avs might turn around and blow out Dallas in Game 2. But the way this game 1 was played is the type of game the Stars need consistently if they are going to move on. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Math Posted August 24, 2020 Share Posted August 24, 2020 49 minutes ago, TropicalFruitGirl26 said: As talented as the Avalanche are, they are going to find this series a rough go if Dallas' big players are wide awake, engaged, but more importantly, ALLOWED to play a more up temp style by their coach. People forget that it wasn't too long ago that Dallas with much of the same core, was one of the better offensive teams in the league.....with bad defense, bad structure, and mediocre goaltending with Niemi and Lehtonen. Well, much of that is fixed, except for some reason, the big offensive players all of a sudden were asked to play TOO MUCH defense, which turned them into a 2-1 win, or 3-2 loss type team. If they can find the right balance, it wouldn't be that much of a big upset if they can pull this series off against Colorado, who, IMO, still need "to learn to win" as a team. Very good summary. When Montgomery took over the team, it was along with having decent goaltending and a much better defensive squad. He drastically changed the team philosophy wit ha defense-first mindset with the assumption that you can only go far in the postseason by being top-notch in D. When Bowness was in, it became still more conservative. It's hard to tell at which point this system is retaining Benn & co. offensive skills, but Benn has considerably faded in the last 2 years. The thing that drives me nuts is to see a sniper like Gurianov having so much limited TOI. He's leading the Stars in scoring, is one of the fastest skater in the team ans gets never more than 13-14 minutes. So maybe the solution is to take the Avs at their own game. I know Bowness and Cooper were not in good terms back in Tampa. Do you think it was personal or due to their exact opposing vision of the game ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TropicalFruitGirl26 Posted August 24, 2020 Share Posted August 24, 2020 @Villette/Lavaux Agree that Dallas definitely has to spread the ice time more....even if it is to give younger, less established players more time, when they clearly have shown they can get the job done. Dallas' backend, known more for defense, also has potential big time offensive weapons in Heiskanen and Klingberg leading the way, but also, guys like Esa Lindell and Jaime Oleksiak, who, even if they themselves aren't big offensive threats, are good possesion guys and good skaters who can help drive offense with their quick clears and finding open wingers up front. As for Bowness and Cooper, I never really understood whatever disagreements they had. I just know that Cooper tends to let his guys "play" to their talents....and in the case of the Lightning, that is offense, offense, and more offense with a more North South style game, while having the defense either pitch in if they are capable or play a halfway type game if they aren't particularly offensive capable. This, of course, has lead to some criticism of the Lightning overall structure due to "well, they don't play enough defense". That does have some merit, but I also think with the current personnel on the blue line, they do a better job than people think..... and Cooper STILL lets his players do more of what they can do. If Bowness had a super conservative approach, I can definitely see a clash there....... TB hasn't really had the type of personnel you want to be playing conservative and not fully utilizing their considerable talents. Kinda like Dallas..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Math Posted August 27, 2020 Share Posted August 27, 2020 !!! Breaking News !!! A stars game can actually be fun to watch. Game #2 was a copy-paste of Game #1, Colorado McKinnon was perfectly shut down by a constant high pressure of the Stars. Game #3 saw the Stars a bit more on the heels and playing lower in their own zone, with Colorado capitalizing on their opportunities. They still went ahead with 3 unanswered goals but a couple of mistakes at the end of the game to drop it. McKinnon is logging an insane amount of TOI. I picked the Avalanche of the Cup, but with this lack of depth, the questionable tenure of their D-men in their own zone and the Goalie #1 out, there's no way such a team can make it until the end, even if they go past the Stars. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OccamsRazor Posted September 4, 2020 Share Posted September 4, 2020 (edited) On 8/27/2020 at 10:40 AM, Villette/Lavaux said: A stars game can actually be fun to watch. Damn i didn't realize the game was on right now. WTF are they playing this at 3 on a friday with no other games on??? Wow what is the NHL doing this should have been more like prime time 7 or 8. And i can't even find it on TV. What record is he talking about??? Gretz 47 points in 18 games??? He has a ways to go for that. Edited September 4, 2020 by OccamsRazor Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OccamsRazor Posted September 4, 2020 Share Posted September 4, 2020 Game link for anyone wanting to watch. http://164.68.104.245/nhl/avalanche.php Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yave1964 Posted September 4, 2020 Share Posted September 4, 2020 Holy crap what a fun ugly bad hockey game so far Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hf101 Posted September 4, 2020 Share Posted September 4, 2020 Who is Kiviranta? lol. A hat trick in game 7. wow. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yave1964 Posted September 4, 2020 Share Posted September 4, 2020 7 minutes ago, hf101 said: Who is Kiviranta? lol. A hat trick in game 7. wow. Good young prospect, didnt get much NHL time only got to play due to injuries. Bet he sticks around now, lol 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lynxrattle Posted September 5, 2020 Share Posted September 5, 2020 A rookie from nowhere with almost no games in the NHL scoring a hat trick in a game 7 He's been a part in clutch goals before, though. Russia vs. Finland - Semi-Final - Game Highlights - #IIHFWorlds 2019 The only goal of the game at 1:40 of the highlights starts with Kiviharju taking the puck away from the Russians. Finland ended up winning the championship, but even at the festivities that followed fans didn't recognize him, despite him wearing the gold medal. Nice to see hockey history being made (even if he plays for the Stars). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pilldoc Posted September 5, 2020 Author Share Posted September 5, 2020 14 hours ago, hf101 said: Who is Kiviranta? lol. A hat trick in game 7. wow. I was thinking the same thing! There goes my bracket..LOL 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OccamsRazor Posted September 5, 2020 Share Posted September 5, 2020 15 hours ago, hf101 said: Who is Kiviranta? lol. A hat trick in game 7. wow. And undrafted rookie free agent they somehow found. Goaltending cost the Avs 3 games in my mind. Will they fix this??? If so how.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Math Posted September 6, 2020 Share Posted September 6, 2020 What an outcome, I didn't expect that at all. I thought the Bowness fiasco to put Bishop in game #5 would cost them the series. However Colorado dominated at even strength, this was decided by special teams. Let's face it, given the injuries Colorado had, not going past them would have been one of the most disgraceful result in franchise history. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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