If the Avs felt any ‘pressure’ going into Game 1 of Nashville series, it didn’t show

Same for Colorado fans: ‘We’re a force to be reckoned with’

A Cale Makar slap shot away from Ball Arena, Michael Gurzhiev dropped the gloves early Tuesday night.

“We have a full, healthy team,” Gurzhiev, of Aurora, said as he rocked a Nathan MacKinnon sweater at the patio outside of Brooklyn’s on Auraria Parkway. “We’re a force to be reckoned with.”

Based on that scorching first period — Avalanche 5, Nashville nada — in Game 1 of the Predators series?

The Avs are a force to be feared, too.

No wonder Colorado faithful seemed so, well … relaxed before their beloved hockey team began its quest for the franchise’s first Stanley Cup in two decades.

Even as the prohibitive favorites. Even though the Avs have been favorites in this bracket the previous two springs, too, only to flame out prematurely.

Nerves? Scale of one to 10?

“A 3,” Gurzhiev said, nodding to his cousin Uri, who sat nearby. “They’re gonna be OK.”

Like the hashtag goes, when Lord Stanley’s on the line, you find a way. What was it Coach Taylor liked to say on the TV show “Friday Night Lights?”

Clear eyes. Full hearts. Can’t lose.

For the Avs, Friday night came early. And it came with a sledgehammer.

“We don’t mind the pressure,” Avs coach Jared Bednar said after the Tuesday morning skate. “That just shows you where we’re at. We’d rather have the pressure.”

What pressure? Cameron Schrader of Parker, who’s been coming to Avs games for nearly three decades, described the Preds as a “guaranteed” win.

“We have the manpower. The only thing that’s going to get in our way is ourselves. Period. I would bet $200 right now. I’d bet my car right now that we will win (Game 1). 100%.”

Keep rocking those wheels, brother.

Schrader was 14 when the Avs last hoisted the Cup. He remembers reaching out to touch it. And vowing to never wash those fingers ever again.

Well, maybe not so much that last part.

“It was the best day of my life,” Schrader gushed. “We can seal the deal anytime.”

Nerves, scale of one to 10?

“Zero,” Schrader replied. “I have zero nervousness.”

And zero spite for Bednar, who is almost as tired of answering questions about second-round playoff exits as Avs fans are of watching them.

“I don’t think he’s the one to blame,” Schrader said of the Colorado coach. “I think the biggest thing we need to look at is our defense. I think defense is what it’s going to come down to.”

Nerves, scale of one to 10?

“A 1,” Schrader’s pal Jud Cushing, also of Parker, interjected. “I’m a big believer in momentum, they don’t have momentum coming in, and that makes me a little worried. I guess that’s why I’m a ‘1’ instead of a ‘zero.’”

And if, Heaven forbid, they would lose Games 1 or 2 at home?

“Everybody in Colorado will freak out,” Cushing laughed. “Personally, I wouldn’t freak out, because I know they would be fine in the next few games.”

With that, he smiled. Wickedly.

“That’s the first hockey team,” Cushing said, “I’ve ever loved.”

Love can make you crazy. Sometimes.

“I’ve got good nerves,” Taylor Newlun of Denver said before the puck dropped. “But I think there’s always nervousness, just because the last few (playoffs) we’ve had have been choked (away).”

You think they feel it? That they want it as badly

as you do?

“They better feel it,” said Avs fan Andrew McIntosh, who sat to Newlun’s right. “That’s the whole goal, is to raise that cup at the end of the year. I know they feel it. They’ve just got to feel it more than everyone else.”

Amen. You trust Darcy Kuemper between the pipes?

A pause.

“We’re going to find out,” McIntosh said.

“I mean, we had confidence in Grubi (Philipp Grubauer) to bring us there,” Newlun added. “I don’t think we’ll have a problem.”

Nerves, scale of one to 10?

“Some of my friends don’t really think we can do it,” Gurzhiev said. “Some of them, the diehards, are like, ‘Yeah, we got this. There’s no way we don’t win the Cup.’”

Any eights out of 10 on the nerves front? Sevens?

“There’s a few,” Michael replied. “There are definitely a few.”

“Inside,” Uri whispered with a grin, poking his cousin. “Inside, he’s really

a 7.”

Find a way. Better yet, find five.