Colorado Avalanche vs St. Louis Blues 2022 Stanley Cup Playoffs R2 Preview
Ha. Bet you’d never see that name in a by-line ever again. The seasonal depression has thawed. My junior year of college (first edition) is finished. Adam, Chick, and Jackson were probably pissed to see my “sup fuckers I’m back” message last week but I’m sure everyone will be absolutely stoked to know that I will not be on the social media team again. I would rather scoop my own eyeballs out with a melon baller. Anyways. You’re here for hockey. Let’s get to it.
Colorado Avalanche (56-19-7, No. 1 Central) vs St. Louis Blues (49-22-22, No. 3 Central)
Recap
The first second-round match of the postseason is set.
Nashville was simply housework for the Colorado Avalanche last week. Haha. That’s funny. Because it was a sweep. ANYWHOS. Colorado outscored the Preds 21-9 in those four games; scoring 7 goals in two separate games. Cale Makar did Cale Makar things and scored 10 goals, setting a league record for most points by a defenseman in a 4 game series. Yes, more than Bobby Orr. In game 3 of the series, starting goalie Darcy Kuemper took a stick straight to the eyeball and missed game 4. According to…everyone, he’s fine. He was just really swollen and they sat him out as precaution. Pavel Francouz did superbly in net but it’s looking like Kuemper will start vs. St. Louis.
St. Louis took out Minnesota in 6 games. Two of which had hat tricks. One from Vladamir Teresenko and another from David Perron. St. Louis trailed 2-1 going into game four in which head coach Craig Berube put Jordan Binnington in net over Ville Husso.
This round two matchup comes just one season after Colorado swept St. Louis in the first round last year. And THAT was right after Blues captain Ryan O’Reilly said the Avs would be ‘an easy opponent.’
Recent History
The last three years have been the same shit different day for Jared Bednar and his Colorado Avalanche. They cruise right through the first round and then fall hard in the second. However, they are 9-1 against St. Louis in the playoffs all-time. Now, if the tables were turned and Colorado was playing Minnesota, I would lack a considerable amount of confidence. Minnesota is stronger than St Louis and Colorado struggles a lot more versus the Wild than they do the Blues. And I just simply cannot watch Tyson Jost in a Wild sweater. I will sob my eyes out just like I did in trigonometry when I found out he had been traded…on Tyson Tuesday.
The Blues do have Bradon Saad but Torey Krug is out with a lower-body injury. David Perron didn’t play in the first round last season because he had COVID. Perron is strong and healthy right now but a couple of strong players versus a completely healthy Avalanche team isn’t going to hold up well. Jordan Binnignton came out of his goaltending rut and has been seemingly hot again. Ville Husso has also been fairly solid between the pipes. They’re just not Darcy Kuemper.
The Blues have some deep forward lines but Colorado is much better on the defensive end than St. Louis could ever dream to keep up with. I think St. Louis will go back and forth between goalies through the series because of how hard and fast Colorado comes at the net.
Colorado top points per game %
- 1.4 Nathan MacKinnon
- 1.3 Mikko Rantanen
- 1.2 Nazem Kadri
St. Louis top ppg%
- 1.09 Vladamir Tarasenko
- 1.06 Robert Thomas
- 1.04 Pavel Buchnevich
Gavin will tell you it’s stupid and I won’t disagree but I cannot make an outright prediction on this series because I am the most superstitious person ever. But if you look at the goalie stats and the top goal scorers of the regular season, I don’t think there are many questions about who’s taking this one.
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