The Avalanche and Vegas Golden Knights seemed destined to meet in the Stanley Cup Playoffs following their 82-point seasons, and here we are with Game 1 of the second round at Ball Arena on Sunday.
The Avalanche have home ice in the best-of-7 series and for as long as they can stay alive after winning the Presidents’ Trophy for the NHL’s best record.
Here are the
GAME NOTES.
The Avalanche are coming off a week-long layoff after sweeping the St. Louis Blues in the first round while the Golden Knights traveled on their only off day Saturday after knocking out the Minnesota Wild in Game 7 of their opening series on Friday.
"Vegas is a good team, there's a lot of things that make them good," captain
Gabriel Landeskog said. “If they want to play a physical game, it's fine. We just went through a series playing like that, so we're going to play our game and continue what we do, play fast. We know them, they know us. It’s going to be an exciting series.”
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The schedule, all times MT
Sunday -- Vegas at Avalanche, 6 p.m.
Wednesday -- Vegas at Avalanche, 8 p.m.
Friday -- Avalanche at Vegas, 8 p.m.
Sunday, June 6 -- Avalanche at Vegas, 6:30 p.m.
*Tuesday, June 8 -- Vegas at Avalanche, TBD
*Thursday, June 10 -- Avalanche at Vegas, TBD
*Saturday, June 12 -- Vegas at Avalanche, TBD
*If necessary
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Each team won four games in the eight-game regular season series; Vegas outscored the Avalanche 18-17.
The Avalanche will count on the top line of Landeskog,
Nathan MacKinnon and
Mikko Rantanen, as usual, along with depth scoring, a defense led by
Cale Makar and
Philipp Grubauer in goal.
“It didn’t really matter who we got, we’d have a tough series ahead of us and that’s kind of expected with the (West) division we had,”
Ryan Graves said. “It was a good division all year. We knew it was going to be a tough series regardless, so we’ve been preparing all the same.”
After losing in Game 7 of the second round in each of the past two postseasons, the Avalanche are looking forward to having home ice. They’ve won 11 straight games at home and are 18-0-1 in the past 19 in the building.
Not only that capacity will increase to 10,500 starting this round.
“I'm sure it's going to be amazing,” coach
Jared Bednar said. “I expect the energy level in the building to be up. It's a big series against a really good hockey team. I hear they're selling out their building for Game 3. So it's a lot of fun for our guys to play in front of fans again. The hostility in the away rink (also) is great. It's something you want to deal with and it's why you play. At home it's even better because it's our fans cheering us on. We love playing here as well, in front of them, and putting on a show. Just excited.”
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Erik Johnson, who hasn’t played since sustaining an upper-body injury Jan. 30 against Minnesota, skated on his own Sunday and looked good.
“All the guys are really excited to see him around,” Bednar said. “He's been coming around a little bit more lately as he's been feeling better. To get him back on the ice is a step in the right direction. I don't know about him being fully cleared or any of that to actually play. He's just taking it step by step in his return to play.”
Here's
Pierre-Edouard Bellemare on EJ’s presence.
“He's a big part of our team and he's been away for a while. Just having his attitude in the locker room, to be able to talk to him. One of those pieces you feel like you're missing in the locker room, so it's just fun to have him there even if he's not close to playing, just good to see him.”
The projected lineup (it’s possible
Sampo Ranta will make his NHL debut on the fourth line):
FORWARDS
Gabriel Landeskog -- Nathan MacKinnon -- Mikko Rantanen
Andre Burakovsky -- J.T. Compher -- Joonas Donskoi
Brandon Saad -- Tyson Jost -- Valeri Nichushkin
Alex Newhook -- Pierre-Edouard Bellemare -- Carl Soderberg
DEFENSE
Devon Toews -- Cale Makar
Ryan Graves -- Samuel Girard
Patrik Nemeth -- Conor Timmins
GOALIES
Philipp Grubauer
Devan Dubnyk
Colorado Avalanche Blogger •Avalanche Insider • 
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