The Colorado Avalanche are on the rise at the right time of the hockey season, giving the 2021-22 Stanley Cup winner hope to repeat his feat from last year.
“Once you’ve tasted it, it’s something you want again,” Avalanche defenseman Bowen Byram summed up.
The Avalanche wrapped up their regular schedule with a 4-3 win at Nashville on Friday night thanks to Nathan MacKinnon’s third goal of the game with 1:42 left in regulation.
The Avalanche finished first in the Central Division for the third consecutive year and will face the Seattle Kraken in the first round of the playoffs.
The Avalanche went 31-7-4 over the past three months and finished the season with a team-high 29 road wins, including 11 in a row after a loss in Dallas on 4 March.
“I think in January we were sixth in our section,” noted striker Mikko Rantanen.
“The way we’ve played in the second half of the year, battled it out and found a way to earn home ice advantage, that’s huge for our team. »
The Avalanche will open their title defense Tuesday night in front of home fans against the Kraken, who have amassed 19 more wins in 2022-23 than in their inaugural season last year.
The Avalanche lost offensive assets in the offseason when Nazem Kadri and Andre Burakovsky signed free agent contracts with Calgary and Seattle, respectively.
Injuries then prompted the team to call on a record number of players in a single season. The list of cripples includes captain Gabriel Landeskog, who missed the entire campaign and will not play in the playoffs due to a right knee injury that required two surgeries.
The team is full of superstars with MacKinnon and Rantanen among its forwards, and defending Norris Trophy winner Cale Makar.
Avalanche management also made a smart move by bringing in goaltender Alexandar Georgiev from the New York Rangers as a draft pick in July.
For their part, the Kraken seem at a disadvantage in net, where Martin Jones and Philipp Grubauer shared the work and both allowed almost three goals per game.
The Kraken will also be without the services of Burakovsky at the start of the playoffs, who underwent surgery to treat a lower-body injury. Burakovsky, who has 39 points in 49 games, has not played since Feb. 7.
Pacific Division champions and the overall top team in the Western Conference, the Vegas Golden Knights will host the Winnipeg Jets in Game 1 on Tuesday night.
The Golden Knights, who had made the playoffs in each of their first five campaigns before being kicked out last year, set a team record with 111 points.
Jack Eichel was their leading scorer and the Golden Knights are led by Bruce Cassidy, who is in his first season at the helm of the team. The Golden Knights also want captain Mark Stone to recover from a back injury that sidelined him for three months.
The Jets will need forward Kyle Connor and goaltender Connor Hellebuyck to be their best players to hope to upset the Golden Knights and advance to the second round.
Respectively second and third in the Pacific Division standings, the Oilers and Kings will meet for the second year in a row, starting Monday night in Edmonton. Last year, Connor McDavid and his teammates defeated the Kings in seven games.
McDavid could ensure that this rematch duel does not drag on. The 26-year-old superstar led the NHL with 64 goals and 153 points. He edged second-ranked teammate Leon Draisaitl by 25 points and Bruins’ David Pastrnak by 40 points.
Whoever should be crowned his team’s most valuable player will want to do more this year in the playoffs after the Oilers were wiped out by the Avalanche in the Western Conference Finals last year. last.
Anze Kopitar remains the Kings’ leader after his 74-point season at age 35. However, to keep pace with the Oilers’ powerful offense, the Kings will need the return of crippled players.
Kevin Fiala, the team’s second in scorer, has missed the past two weeks with a lower-body injury. In addition, Gabriel Vilardi, author of 41 points in 63 games, has been inactive for the past few weeks due to an upper body injury.
The Stars and Wild, who finished second and third respectively in the Central Division, will meet for Game 1 Monday night in Dallas.
Under head coach Peter DeBoer, young forward Jason Robertson hit the 40-goal mark for the second consecutive season. Additionally, Jamie Benn, now 33, stood out with 78 points.
For their part, the Wild will want to end a six-game first-round knockout streak and reach the next round for the first time since 2015.
In goal, the Wild could decide to employ some kind of alternating system with Quebec veteran Marc-André Fleury, 38, and youngster Filip Gustavsson, 24.
