Avs not content with playoff berth
Top-seeded Nashville heavily favored to end Colorado’s Cinderella season in first round
The Stanley Cup playoffs begin Wednesday, and few believe the NHL’s Cinderella story is a true contender.
The Westgate Las Vegas Super-Book set odds to win it all for the 16-team field Monday, and the Avalanche checked in at 40-1, worst in the Western Confer- ence, while its first-round opponent, Nashville, topped the list at 4-1. Media predictions for the best-of-seven series from Sporting News, USA Today and Yahoo Sports all predict an easy pass for Nashville — none see Colorado winning more than one game.
The Avalanche, whose 47-point improvement from last season is tied for the fourth-best turnaround in NHL history, understands why some dismiss its chances. That doesn’t mean the team is listening.
“I don’t feel like our guys are satisfied with getting in the playoffs,” Avs coach Jared Bednar Monday. “They’re a hungry group.”
Colorado will enter its playoff opener at Nashville on Thursday with the understanding that No. 1 seeds have been vulnerable to first-round upsets. Montreal stormed back from 3-1 down in 2010 to beat Washington. In 2012, the Los Angeles Kings stunned Vancouver in five games.
A more recent example of No. 8 over No. 1 gives Colorado a better blueprint for its own David vs. Goliath matchup — the 2016-17 Predators. Like the Avs this season, Nashville entered the playoffs a year ago as a young team in
possession of the final Western Conference berth. Nashville stunned Chicago in the first round 4-0 and made it to the Stanley Cup Final.
Colin Wilson spent his first eight NHL seasons with Nashville before being traded to the Avalanche last summer.
“We’re in the same situation. (The Predators) were a young team last year and we are a young team now,” said Wilson, a center. “There is so much energy and so much excitement for guys in their first playoffs. You just use that, and it can be just as good as experience.”
Gabe Landeskog is one of five players on the Avs’ roster who were with the team in 2014, the last time the Avs were in the playoffs. The others are Tyson Barrie, Erik Johnson, Nathan MacKinnon and Semyon Varlamov. Landeskog believes Colorado’s playoff push this season provided a taste of what’s to come for teammates with less postseason experience.
“We’ve been playing in door-die games for the last couple of months,” said Landeskog, the Avs’ captain. “Get- ting a crash course in learning to play under pressure in must-win games, that’s what they’ve gone through. The playoffs are a different animal, but we’ve got a lot of guys here who are confident in our group — and we all should be.”
While the Avs’ dressing room was filled with hope Monday, there is no hiding from reality. Colorado didn’t win any of its previous 10 games against the Predators. The Avs last defeated Nashville on March 28, 2016.
“I don’t mind being the underdog,” Bednar said. “I want us to put our best foot forward, and I believe that will be good enough. And if it’s not, it’s not. But I think that if we do that, then we give ourselves our best chance. I want our guys to have fun, embrace it and enjoy it. But I want us to dig in and be highly competitive.”