Colorado Avalanche: 4 Keys to Beating the Flames in Round 1

The Colorado Avalanche have it in them to beat the Calgary Flames. Here are four keys to the series.

Hey, Colorado Avalanche fans, let’s go all-in like our superstar Nathan MacKinnon and say just making the playoffs isn’t enough for us this year. We want to win a playoff series. Well, to do that, the Avalanche have to beat the Calgary Flames.

On the surface, the two teams don’t look evenly-matched. The Flames are the best in the Western Conference with 107 points. Colorado slid into the last wild card spot with 90 points.

However, records don’t tell the tale — points totals are just what get a team into the playoffs. The Avalanche are in, and they’re in much better shape than last year when they took the dominant Nashville Predators to six games.

Indeed, with the news that star winger Mikko Rantanen is returning for Game 1, Colorado is pretty much healthy. Last year we were missing our top defenseman, Erik Johnson, and starting goalie, Semyon Varlamov. This year we’ve got pretty much everybody.

I’m excited Colorado got Calgary in this first round because I think they’d have a harder time beating Nashville or Winnipeg in the playoffs. Rather, I think the Avs and Flames are well-matched, and we’ll be seeing some exciting hockey.

So, let’s look at five keys that can help the Colorado Avalanche achieve victory over the Calgary Flames.