Game 1 Preview: The Central Division’s best — Avs vs. Wild

I have three keys to a Colorado Avalanche victory:

1. Keep your head up!
2. Play your game.
3. Protect your goalie.

The Wild are known for laying the body, so it’s important that Avalanche skaters mind their p’s and q’s tonight.

If you get caught with your head down or lacking in the corner, the Wild will make you pay, and that sort of thing wears on a team over time.

The Avalanche have trailed for just three minutes and change in the playoffs despite the ridiculous narrative that they somehow ‘struggled’ with LA.

Colorado needs to implement the same structure with support and capitalize a bit more on their opportunities defensively.

Scott Wedgewood is four for four in playoff starts, and the longer that streak runs, the better it is for the Avalanche, obviously, so they’d do well to insulate and honor Scott Wedgewood by not allowing as many odd-man rushes and breaks as they did in the LA series.

Projected Lineup:

Artturi Lehkonen — Nathan MacKinnon — Martin Necas
Gabriel Landeskog — Brock Nelson — Valeri Nichushkin
Ross Colton — Nazem Kadri — Nicolas Roy
Parker Kelly — Jack Drury — Logan O’Connor

Devon Toews — Cale Makar
Brent Burns — Josh Manson
Brett Kulak — Sam Malinski

Scott Wedgewood
MacKenzie Blackwood

Note: Josh Manson and Joel Kiviranta were a bit banged up in round one. It sounds like Kivi still needs time, but Manson may be good-to-go for round two!

Minnesota Wild

The Minnesota Wild are a very good hockey team.

Cale Makar, Nathan MacKinnon, and Jared Bednar have said so repeatedly in the build-up to this series, but it’s not just hockey speak. It’s the truth.

With Quinn Hughes added to the defense and budding talents like Brock Faber and Matt Boldy at the helm, this team brings a dangerous offensive twist to an otherwise heavy, gritty group.

A lot of teams around the league lean a little more toward size than skill, or vice versa, based on personal preference, but not the Wild. Bill Guierin (like Chris MacFarland) has built a team that is well-balanced in many respects.

Here are three keys to victory for the Wild:

1. Start strong.
2. Get to Wedgewood early.
3. Lean on Colorado.

The Avalanche clearly did fine in both home games against LA, but didn’t start as strongly in some cases as you’d like to see the home club.

If the Wild can weather the storm early and keep things close, or steal an early lead, it will already be relatively uncharted territory for this year’s Avalanche club.

Scott Wedgewood’s play inside this series could be the demarcator between winners and losers, so if Minnesota wants to get to the Western Conference final, they will have to humanize Wedgewood early and often.

Lastly, back to checking for Minny. The big focus will be on checking Colorado’s defenders, who are notoriously active offensively. Pain is pain, and a human can only take so much of it.

Projected Lineup:

Kirill Kaprizov — Ryan Hartman — Mats Zuccarello
Marcus Johansson — Joel Eriksson Ek — Matt Boldy
Yakov Trenin — Michael McCarron — Vladimir Tarasenko
Marcus Foligno — Nick Foligno — Nico Sturm

Quinn Hughes — Brock Faber
Jacob Middleton — Jared Spurgeon
Jeff Petry — Zach Bogosian

Jesper Wallstedt
Filip Gustavsson

Note: Joel Eriksson Ek’s status is in doubt heading into the second round.

Let us know what you think of this matchup in the comments!