Moments after a devastating loss on Wednesday, Nathan MacKinnon described the possibility of going to St. Louis for Game 6 as “a big challenge, but said he and his teammates were delighted. Avalanche still has two chances to get the only victory needed. to send them to the Western Conference finals, the first of which will be on Friday.
None of this makes the team’s collapse in Game Five more understandable, however, MacKinnon believes the Avalanche can be informed from it. And they will want it or the loss can pass them by for a long time.
“It makes our team a little harder, a little harder in those situations,” MacKinnon said.
There were many symptoms of concern for the Avalanche in Game 5, who saw them take a 3-0 lead in the current era and a 4-3 lead with less than a minute to play in regulation time. But there was also an explanation Why Colorado can still beat the Blues?
Let’s review each one.
The Avalanche sacrificed a lot to beat Kuemper, sending a first-round pick and Conor Timmins to Arizona this summer in exchange for purpose. And while Kuemper was a bright spot for the Avalanche in the regular season, he had his worst playoff game against St. Louis in Game 5, at least according to the goal metric recorded above Evolving-Hockey expectations. He allowed 1. 82 more goals than expected, according to the site, and threw good rebounds. In an overtime game, it was going back to biting you.
Avalanche coach Jared Bednar mentioned Kuemper’s difficult night, but said he’s far from the only Avalanche player to perform poorly.
“You can organize it in our team,” the coach said. We weren’t smart enough, especially in the third half.
Kuemper has a negative GSAx in 4 of the five games in this series. This is a problematic trend and will have to be corrected if Colorado becomes a champion team. But that doesn’t take away from Bednar’s confidence that he is the team’s ultimate productive possibility. to win, which makes sense given his good fortune for most of the season. When asked if he would go with Pavel Francouz’s replacement in Game 6, Bednar replied simply.
“No. “
MacKinnon did almost everything in his power to get Colorado a win on Wednesday. He scored 4 points, a three-pointer and arguably the most productive purpose of the entire postseason. The Blues had limited the Colorado star to 3 assists in the first 4 games of the series, but the fifth game saw him find a ritmo. St. Luis had no answer. And while MacKinnon was disappointed after Wednesday’s loss, it projected confidence.
“We have to stay in our game and be aggressive,” he said. “That’s what we’ll do on Friday. “
MacKinnon has as many as 82 career playoff problems in 59 games. He broke the 80-point barrier in the fifth game, tying Sidney Crosby in the four games needed to succeed on the mark. Only Wayne Gretzky, Mario Lemieux and Jari Kurri made it. 80 numbers faster.
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Thomas, 22, had a great season for St. Louis, recording 77 problems in 72 games. But he hadn’t found his game at the start of the playoffs, couldn’t score in the Blues’ first 10 games and only got 3. help
Everything was replaced in the third era of Game 5. Thomas scored twice, adding the tie with 56 seconds to play. Vladimir Tarasenko also scored. Avalanche had eliminated any of the players in the past, but if they opt for Blues, St. Louis is much harder to beat.
Colorado went 3-for-3 on numerical demerit Wednesday, a big improvement over Game 4, in which the Blues scored two goals on numerical merit in the period. Bednar said the team made changes at intermission that night, and those changes gave the impression of having worked.
“PK knew we had to be better,” said Darren Helm, who played only about 4 minutes with a numerical disadvantage on Wednesday. “I watched a little more video and prepared a little differently. The boys give everything, sacrifice their bodies, block shots. That’s what we want to move forward. “
That said, Colorado struggled when the Blues pulled out their goalie, unable to pull the puck out of the five-on-six defensive zone, leading to Thomas scoring the tying goal.
Colorado had a three-goal lead in Game 4, but allowed the Blues to get one before the third period. Even in the first game, which the Avalanche won in overtime, Colorado couldn’t put an end to a plethora of scoring opportunities and beat the Blues in regulation.
Then there’s Wednesday’s collapse. Whether he’s walking away from his game or the Blues jostling, Colorado’s inability to save games is the explanation for why the series continues.
The Avalanche have been a smart team during those playoffs, winning all four of their games away from Ball Arena. Coaches who have changed the last lines at home would also be less important than in other playoffs, given Bednar and Blues coach Craig. Berube has played, for the most part, its maximum productive lines compared to others.
“It’s a thing of the past, yet we’ve had a great fortune there,” MacKinnon said of the game in St. Louis. ” We want a greater effort to complete 60. “
Girard fractured his sternum after receiving a certain shot from Ivan Barbashev in Game 3. He’s out of the playoffs, and that has a ripple effect on the entire roster. Jack Johnson now has to take part in the 20 minutes consistent with the game Girard played. , and although he made a smart playoff debut with avalanche in Game 4, he scored minus 1 in Game five and the Avalanche generated 38. 16% of expectations. Sharing goals with him on the ice in five against five, through Natural Statistics Trick. He also played five minutes less than the next closest defender, which does not assign Bednar’s confidence.
Bowen Byram, meanwhile, looked more responsibly. The avalanche generated about 80 percent of the expected targets while on the ice.
Colorado is willing not to lose two games in a row. For the maximum component this season, the team has controlled it.
After a three-game losing streak earlier in the season in October, Colorado has lost more than one game in a row just five times this season. the playoffs. Aside from Girard, Colorado has a healthy roster, and a team with this skill point shouldn’t lose 3 times in a row.
The Blues know how to win. Much of his roster won the Stanley Cup in 2019, but even some of his other additions have a championship pedigree. Deadline’s acquisition, Nick Leddy, won the Cup with Chicago, as did Brandon Saad. So when they were with their backs to the wall in Game 5, they didn’t flinch. This will make them difficult to remove.
This applies to both the regular season and the playoffs. The Avalanche finished with 10 more problems in the normal season standings, and ruled to the maximum of St. Louis in this series. The avalanche won 3-2, after all.
Check out those five-on-five numbers, all Natural Stat Trick:
Essentially, if avalanche plays like it did in the first five games, it can St. Louis. Si your game fails, this is where things can get risky, as shown through the collapse of Game 5.