The Colorado Avalanche will take on the Vegas Golden Knights on Tuesday night at Ball Arena in what could very well be a preview of the Western Conference Final.
The Avalanche enter the contest firmly entrenched in the third spot in the Central Division, on a collision course with the Dallas Stars. Meanwhile, the Golden Knights have a solid five-point lead over the LA Kings atop the Pacific Division.
As such, the Avalanche and Golden Knights are poised to enter the playoffs on high notes. However, they cannot meet in the postseason until the Western Conference Final. But looking at the path head for both teams, that could very well be a possibility.
If the playoffs started today, the Golden Knights would face the St. Louis Blues in the first round. The Blues are the hottest team in the league right now. So, having the Golden Knights bounce them in the first round would not be such a bad thing.
Then, the Golden Knights would face the winner of the Edmonton Oilers-LA Kings first-round matchup. Assuming the powerhouse Oilers can drop the Kings in the first round, the Golden Knights-Oilers second-round tilt could favor Vegas.
On the other side of the bracket, the Avs will go up against Dallas in the first round. After Dallas, the Avs get the winner of the Winnipeg Jets-Minnesota Wild series. Now, I’d like to make a quick pause here.
The Jets are poised to take the Presidents’ Trophy. As such, it remains to be seen if the Presidents’ Trophy curse could come back to haunt the Jets. Last season’s Presidents’ Trophy winners, the New York Rangers, made it to the third round but just ran out of gas against the Florida Panthers.
So, let’s see if the Jets can steamroll the Wild and potentially meet the Avalanche in the second round. If the Avalanche can get past the powerful Jets offense and their all-world netminder, Connor Hellebuyck, the Avalanche could have an epic showdown with the Vegas Golden Knights.
Looking at the Colorado Avalanche line against Vegas Golden Knights
The Avs are expected to roll out a similar lineup to the one they deployed against the St. Louis Blues on Saturday night. Jonathan Drouin and Martin Necas appear to remain on the shelf for one more game.
While having Necas and Drouin would be a huge boost, it’s best to have them fully healthy for Game 1 of the postseason as opposed to rushing them into the lineup at this point in the regular season.
On the blue line, Keaton Middleton and Erik Johnson should get the nod as Samuel Girard remains day-to-day while Josh Manson has been out for nearly a month.
Like Drouin and Necas, there’s no point in rushing Manson and Girard at this point. If anything, I like the idea of getting Johnson and Middleton in the lineup at this point in the season. In my estimation, Jared Bednar will deploy either one of Middleton or Johnson, or both, to give some regulars a break, but also when more physical matchups are necessary.
