This should be a hard fought series between a team that went all out at the trade deadline, (re-)acquiring a former MVP and a solid blue-liner and a team that got...Chris Simon. The talent level for the Avalanche easily dwarfs the Wild-when it is all healthy. That has been unachievable this year so far for the Avs, with Joe Sakic and Paul Stasny both missing large chunks of time (in fact, only 3 Avs played all 82 games), and yet Stasny led the team in scoring, boy got skills, what can you say. In addition, high-priced winger Ryan Smyth has fizzled lately for Colorado, not scoring a goal in his last 10 games and being demoted to the 3rd line. A resurgence by Smyth could be enough to put the Avs over the top.
To be honest, there are a lot of questions about this team, but the Wild are just not bringing a lot of firepower to the table in this series. Shutting down just a couple players, or at least make their lives difficult, such as Marion Gaborik and Brian Rolston will stop the Wild on offense and allow Colorados deep bench to win the series. Even if the Wild can neutralize guys like Stasny, Sakic and Forsberg, Marek Svatos, Wojtek Wolski, or someone else with an unpronounceable name can pick up the slack. However, Jaques Lemaire's power-play and penalty-kill units easily out-classed Colorados this year, so the Avs have to keep it 5 on 5 as much as possible. I think this will be a close series, but I think even with a couple injuries, Joe Sakic will find a way for his boys to win it in 7. See below for a more detailed video breakdown of the Wild vs Avlanche.
The Wild AKA Crazy Hippie
VS
The Avalanche AKA Uncontrollable Force of Nature
The SUS staff is busy putting together the rest of our Stanley Cup Playoffs Round One Preview as I write. Expect more hockey awesomeness Wednesday.
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1 comment:
Hey Scott Templeton, are you sure you didn't get your brother to write this for you? As Gus would say "It's perfect. And that's the problem."
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