Game 1 of the second round between the Colorado Avalanche and Vegas Golden Knights should be electric. That is expected to be the case both on the ice and in the stands when the top two clubs in the NHL meet in their best-of-seven set.
The Avs will host 10,500 fans this evening as they open series, their largest home crowd all season. Dating back to the regular season, Colorado has won 11 straight outings in its friendly confines off Chopper Circle.
"I'm actually worried, seven and a half [thousand] felt like 15 [thousand], so what is 10 [thousand] going to feel like? It's been amazing," said Avalanche forward Pierre-Edouard Bellemare. "Not having fans after the long quarantine during the bubble, you were kind of OK with it because it was playoffs… When fans show up, you're like 'OK, I don't want to play ever again without them.' This is the game, this is the game I love, [the fans make] everything so much better."
The in-arena atmospheres throughout the Stanley Cup Playoffs this year in the United States have been a storyline in Round 1 and have made the contests feel a little more like a normal postseason. Vegas is expected to have T-Mobile Arena at full capacity for Game 3 of the series on Friday, which will also be a welcome sight for Colorado.
According to head coach Jared Bednar, the club can gain just as much energy from being the villain in visiting buildings as they do as the home team in its own barn.
"I heard they're selling out their building for Game 3. It's a lot of fun for our guys playing in front of fans again, and the hostility in the away rink is great," Bednar said. "I think it's something that you want to deal with and it's why you play. Then I think at home it's even better because it's our fans cheering us on. We love playing here at Ball in front of them and putting on a show, we're just excited to be able to do it."
The West Division's Avalanche (39-13-4) and Golden Knights (40-14-2) finished tied atop of the NHL standings during the regular season, but Colorado finished ahead in the Presidents' Trophy race by owning the tiebreaker of regulation wins (35-30). That award gives the Avs home-ice advantage throughout the postseason and makes any possible series-decisive games set to be played in Denver.
The regular-season series was as tight as it could be, as both teams averaged just above two goals per game versus one another and five of the contests were decided by one goal. Colorado finished with the slight edge by posting a 4-3-1 record in the eight outings (Vegas went 4-4-0).
"They've bettered us a few times, we've got the better of them a few times," said Bednar on Saturday in regard to the series. "You go through a 56-game schedule, and we finished tied for points. In our eight-game series against them, we finished one point ahead, so this is two evenly-matched teams. A little bit of different styles, but both teams are deep, both teams play with a lot of speed, both teams have good goaltending. It's a little bit of different styles, but I'm expecting a long, hard series here and so is our team."
This is the third time in the last eight seasons that the top two teams from the regular season will meet in the second round of the playoffs, and it is only the fourth time in Stanley Cup playoff history that two clubs that tied for first overall in the year are meeting in the postseason. The last time was 1974-75 when the Philadelphia Flyers, Buffalo Sabres and Montreal Canadiens all tied with 113 points and Buffalo faced Montreal in the semifinal and Philadelphia in the Stanley Cup Final.
LINEUP NOTES
Head coach Jared Bednar did not give any details about his lineup for Game 1 this morning, so the club's exact forward combinations and defensive pairings likely won't be known until closer to game time.
Forward Alex Newhook played on the Avs' fourth line in each of the first four games of the team's Round 1 series versus the St. Louis Blues, but he wasn't able to finish the last contest after a hard collision into the boards on his back. Fellow rookie Sampo Ranta has been taking reps on the fourth line throughout the team practices this week, but Newhook has been a full participant in those sessions as well and Bednar made note on Tuesday that Newhook should be ready for the second round.
Erik Johnson skated on his own prior today's optional practice, the first time he's been seen on the ice since suffering an upper-body injury on Jan. 30 at Minnesota. It's a good sign that the alternate captain is making progress, but Bednar still doesn't have a definite timeline on the veteran defenseman's return.
"I don't know about him being fully cleared or any of that to actually play, but he's just taking it step by step in his return-to-play protocol basically. As he feels better, he's doing more and it's good to see him starting to get healthy again," Bednar said. "Guys like having him around, obviously he's a lot of fun and a committed teammate, so we'll see where it goes. But I don't have anything on an imminent return or even him joining our main group for practice."
Philipp Grubauer is expected to start in net.
View: Avalanche vs. Golden Knights Projected Lineup
NOTEWORTHY
The other two times in Stanley Cup Playoff history in which two teams who tied for first overall in points during the regular season went on to meet in the playoffs: 1917-18 during the NHL inaugural season when the Montreal Canadiens and Toronto Arenas tied with 26 points and met in the Final and in 1969-70 when the Chicago Blackhawks and Boston Bruins tied with 99 points and met in the semifinal.
Since the NHL switched to a division playoff format in 2013-14, this is the third time that the league's top two teams from the regular season will meet in the second round as the Washington Capitals and Pittsburgh Penguins faced off in 2016-17 and the Nashville Predators and Winnipeg Jets did the same in 2017-18.
Colorado outscored St. Louis 20-7 in Round 1, becoming the seventh team in playoff history to win a first-round series 4-0 while outscoring their opponents by 13 or more goals (last: 2006 New Jersey Devils, plus-13 vs. New York Rangers in Eastern Conference Quarterfinals).
The Avalanche is 2-0 at home this postseason and going back to the regular season has won 11 straight at Ball Arena and is 18-0-1 in its last 19 on home ice. The Avs finished 22-4-2 at home (.821) this season, tied for the most wins and points (46) in the league. The .821 home points percentage was the club's highest since moving to Denver for the 1995-96 campaign.
Nathan MacKinnon leads the NHL in goals (six), ranks third in points (nine) and is first in points per game (2.25). He was the first player in Avalanche/Quebec Nordiques history to collect nine points in a series while playing only four games.
MacKinnon has 63 points (26 goals and 37 assists) in 44 career playoff games, the highest points-per-game average (1.43) among active players and the fourth-highest in Stanley Cup Playoff history (minimum 25 games).
ONE TIMERS
Pierre-Edouard Bellemare on playing his former team in the postseason: "I don't think it's extra motivation, it's Round 2 of the playoffs. At this point I don't really care who we're playing against, I just want our team to perform well and want us to do good in Game 1. I'm not really thinking about the crest on the other side of the rink. I just want to win the game."
Head coach Jared Bednar on if Sampo Ranta will make his NHL debut tonight: "I can say, but I won't say though."
Bednar on more fans at Ball Arena: "I'm sure it's going to be amazing. Even when we first started putting fans in, 4,000 fans seemed like a world of difference. Went to 7,000 and it was even better, and now we're going to 10,000. I expect the energy level in the building to be up, it's a big series against a real good hockey team."
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