NFL
By Jesse Rosales
The end of the Stanley Cup Western Conference playoff race came down to the final day of the regular season, which as a fan, what else could you ask for? With the Colorado Avalanche taking care of business over the Nashville Predators, it sets up them up with a first-round matchup with the Seattle Kraken, who in their second year of existence, make their first Stanley Cup playoff appearance.
These are 2 high-powered offensive teams but let’s review how both teams got here.
Colorado Avalanche Season Review
The Colorado Avalanche have battled all year. Coming off a Stanley Cup-winning season last year, the team fought against injuries right out of the gate and continued to do so all season long. With injuries to key players like Josh Manson, Cale Makar, Artturi Lehkonen, and Val Nickushkin. The biggest injury of all was without a doubt to captain Gabriel Landeskog, which missed the entire regular season battling through a lingering knee issue from 2020. He has been ruled out for this Stanley Cup playoff run.
Through all that adversity, the Avs finished the regular season with 109 points, finishing on top of the Central Divison. The highlight of the season was without a doubt was seeing Mikko Rantanen score 55 goals and end with 105 total points. The 55 goals were good enough for 4th all-time in franchise history and the first time in 20+ years that an Avalanche player scored over 50 goals.
Seattle Kraken Season Review
The Seattle Kraken are without a doubt one of the best “feel good” stories in the NHL this season. Back in January, the team went on what ended up being a supercritical run of 7 straight road game victories, including giving the Boston Bruins their first regulation loss at home. That is when everyone really started to take this team seriously as a playoff-contending team.
Rookie Matty Beniers has definitely played an important role in the success of this team. Beniers totaled 24 goals and 57 points in his first NHL season and will run away with the most votes for the Calder Memorial Trophy as rookie of the year. The Kraken finished 4th in the Pacific Division and will look to take another step forward as an organization in their first-round Stanley Cup playoff matchup.
Stanley Cup Playoff Rd 1 Prediction
The Avs put up 280 goals on the season and the Kraken put up 289 respectively. The Avs did end the season with a better goal differential of +54 compared to the Kraken’s +33. Ironically, what this series will likely come down to is defensive and goaltending.
Alexander Georgiev of the Avalanche has played great all season as the replacement for Darcy Kuemper who left the Avs in the off-season after their Stanley Cup victory. Georgiev finished the regular season with a 2.53 goals-against average and .919 save percentage which both numbers were an improvement over Kuemper’s numbers. Neither of Seattle’s goaltenders were able to secure a save percentage over .900 and both have a goals-against average over 2.8.
The betting market in Vegas shows the Avalanche as -285 favorites to win the series. They are -140 favorites to win the series by at least 2 games (-1.5). I would also look at the total number of games in the series at 5 (+230) or 6 (+190) total games. I think the Kraken are going to have their moments in this series and I do think they will win a game at home. But the Avs have too much talent and too much experience and will be getting most of their injured players back including Cale Makar. Gimme the Colorado Avalanche in 5 games.
For more NHL news and updates, be sure to follow me on Twitter @5280Jesse and Team NBS Media
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