As the Colorado Avalanche get ready to face the Los Angeles Kings in Game 4 in Round 1 of the Stanley Cup playoffs, they are already ahead of the other teams in the Western Conference. This could help them in later rounds.
Not to count my eggs before they hatch, but the Avalanche can close things out against the Kings on Sunday afternoon. They hold a 3-0 lead in the postseason series, and all they have to is get their fourth to move on to either the Dallas Stars or Minnesota Wild in round 2.
Now, it hasn’t been easy for the Avs to get to this point. After a long, long regular season, they had to battle quite hard to get over the Kings in the first two games in the series. The first two matchups ended by a final score of 2-1, and the second game went to overtime, where Colorado finished their business.
Anton Forsberg has been exceptional in goal for the Kings, but Scott Wedgewood has proven to be even better. He has 76 saves and a goals-against average (GAA) of 1.28, as well as a save percentage of .947. That is hysterically superb.
Following Game 1, Kings head coach DJ Smith had something to say about the Avalanche and how theyshouldn’t expect to win the series by scoring just two goals each game. Hilariously, Colorado heard that and came out swinging by putting up four goals to Los Angeles’ two in Game 3. That just goes to show that sometimes, putting up bulletin board material isn’t always a good idea. You have to back it up.
The Avalanche have a clear advantage if they end Round 1 on Sunday
Now, if the Avalanche close things out on Sunday afternoon, they will officially be well ahead of the other conference-leading teams. Dallas and Minnesota are tied in the round with two wins apiece, while the Utah Mammoth are up 2-1 in the series against the Golden Knights and the Anaheim Ducks are up 2-1 in the series against the Edmonton Oilers.
The Avalanche hope that the Stars-Wild series goes to seven games. Those teams are extremely familiar to the Avalanche, and the same goes for them in terms of Colorado. Since they are division rivals, they face each other more often. All three teams know what is at stake. The Avalanche want a chance to redeem themselves from over the past couple of seasons and get back to the Stanley Cup Final. The Wild and Stars want to prevent that from happening, but they have to take care of business against each other first.
Things were getting chippy in the first two games against the Kings, with a bunch of pushes and such following whistles. While Game 3 didn’t see a ton of that type of action, I could see the Kings trying to do that same thing in Game 4 as they try and climb out of this deep hole they dug themselves into.
But this afternoon, the Avalanche just have to stick to their gameplan to defeat the Kings and get a little bit of rest before they begin the second round against whoever comes out of the Wild-Stars series. Me? I just say to those teams to please get the series into seven.
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