Second thoughts: Speedy Avs get rematch with rugged Blues

DENVER – Colorado Avalanche captain Gabriel Landeskog supervised his daughter’s soccer practices. Coach Jared Bednar did yardwork. Speedy forward Nathan MacKinnon planned some play time with his dogs.

Just a relaxing week break before facing their archrival: the second round.

Colorado, the top seed in the West, has been eliminated in this portion of the Stanley Cup playoffs in each of the last three seasons. Standing in the way this time will be a nasty, experienced St. Louis Blues team familiar with grinding talented team like the Avalanche straight into the boards.

This version of Colorado has been built tougher and meaner than years past. They no longer rely strictly on speed. That was on display in their firstround sweep of Nashville when the Predators pushed and the Avs pushed right back.

“Teams want to come at us physically,” said Bednar, whose team hosts St.

Louis in Game 1 on Tuesday night after a long layoff. “We’re not a small team. We’re not a scared team.”

Last season, the Avalanche swept Ryan O’Reilly and the Blues in in the first round. That St. Louis squad was missing David Perron (COVID-19 protocols) and later defenseman Justin Faulk, who took a hit to the head from Nazem Kadri in Game 2 and didn’t return. Kadri drew an eight-game suspension for the hit, missing the final two games against the Blues and all six games against Vegas.

The Avalanche insist they aren’t dwelling on the second-round exits – San Jose (seven games in 2018-19), Dallas (seven games, 2019-20) and last year’s bruiser with the Golden Knights.

“It’s not really discussed,” Colorado forward Mikko Rantanen said. “Everybody knows what happened and we don’t need to think about the past at all.”

Not when they are staring at a Blues team that doesn’t give teams much time or space with the puck.