Avalanche-Blues Series Preview: Can Colorado dominate another Central Division rival?

The second round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs has brought another interesting matchup in the form of the St. Louis Blues versus the Colorado Avalanche. On one hand you have the Blues, who have always been known as a decent playoff team, playing the grinding, hard-nosed style that typically does well come postseason time. On the other hand, you have the high-octane, fast-paced Colorado Avalanche.

The Avalanche have not appeared in a conference final since 2002, when they lost to the Detroit Red Wings in seven games, and they have lost in the second round the past three years in a row. Meanwhile, this is the first time the Blues are in the second round since they won the Stanley Cup in 2019.

Colorado has some superstar players to watch including Cale Makar, Nathan MacKinnon, Gabriel Landeskog, and Mikko Rantanen. Goaltender Darcy Kuemper will also likely be ready for Game 1, which would be a huge boost for the Avs, as he has been out since Game 3 of the first round. Makar leads the group in points with 10 tallies (3 goals, 7 assists).

The Blues do have some stars of their own including David Perron, Ryan O'Reilly, and Vladimir Tarasenko, who have all scored five goals in the playoffs thus far. It will be interesting to see which route the Blues go in net as Binnington won three games in a row in the first round after replacing Ville Husso, but he did struggle a bit during the regular season going 1-2-0 with a 3.78 GAA and .897 SV% versus Colorado.

So who will win the series?

The Avalanche will win if they stay out of penalty and injury trouble. The Blues likely have the upper hand at special teams, even though Colorado is the better overall team.

The Blues will win if their goaltending comes up big and they can play their physical, grinding game to out-muscle the Avalanche.

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