It’s said you learn more from a loss than a victory. In game 1, the Avs fell 6-7 but learned they could score six goals on Vezina Trophy finalist Hellebuyck and needed to tighten up the defense to support their goaltender. In the proceeding four games, well, the Jets learned a lot. Chiefly, the team they met in the playoffs is not the same team they defeated in all three regular season contests. Now, the Winnipeg Jets have until October to think about those lessons, and the Avs are on to Round 2.
While the Avs made quick work of the series, entering the playoffs, it felt like we were poised for a tight series. The Winnipeg Jets finished the season with eight straight wins, claiming home ice over the Avalanche in their recent touchdown win. They had the fewest goals against and had the best regular season goaltender between the pipes. On the other hand, the Avs coasted into the playoffs after a series of bad losses, with a goaltender who had only won two of his last six games. But then the playoff started, and what happened during the previous 82 games is irrelevant.
The Avalanche started the playoffs on the road for the first time since 2019 and face-offed in Canada Life Center amongst the famous Winnipeg White-Out, with fans dauning their white and flooding the streets and stands. Even among Canadians, the city of Winnipeg is considered a “must-skip” destination. Therefore, when their beloved hockey team finishes with a fantastic year, the fans will bring it all. Unfortunately for them, their team did not and lost in five games in Round 1 for the second year in a row.
Like walking into the sun after a matinee movie, the Jets were blindsided by the intensity of the Avs, and after the Avs scored four goals in the second period of Game 2, the Jets never recovered. After only allowing four total goals by the Avs in three regular season games, Hellebuyck allowed 19 goals through the first four games, the most he’s allowed in his nine-year career. The Avs outscored them 28-15 in five games, putting up five or more goals in each contest. During the regular season, the Jets had a 34-game streak where they allowed three or fewer goals.
On the opposite side of the ice, Georgiev allowed four goals on the first ten shots in Game 1 and ended with seven against. After a shaky end to the regular season, Colorado fans and critics practically demanded his head. With backup Justus Annunen out due to an illness, Bednar had no choice but to stick with Georgiev for Game 2. Rather than feed into the chatter of doubt, Georgiev stopped 28 of 30 shots and only allowed eight goals in the remaining four games. We'll never know whether Bednar would have started Annunen had he been healthy, but Georgiev proved the cream rises to the top. It didn’t hurt that the Avs finally helped him in front of the net. Georgiev said, “I just felt so much trust in the room from everybody… I appreciate it so much; it helped me reset and all that… They got my back. I know I’ll help them out here as well.” His ability to come back and “just shut up all the haters,” as Yakov Trenin astutely put it, is the stuff movies are made of.
Trenin, a late-season addition for the Avs, scored his first playoff goal for the Avs in Game 5, one of ten players to get a point in the game and one of the 12 players that scored for the Avs this series. Twelve players also had three or more points, compared to last year’s seven players with 3+ points in seven games versus the Seattle Kraken. MacKinnon, Makar, and Mikko each had nine points, with Lehkonen and Nichuskin scoring in every game. Nichuskin, who played a crucial role in 2022, had 15 points in twenty playoff games; in five this year, he has seven. The Avs lacked depth last year, but the Avs’s four lines are rolling this year.
The Avs have shed their regular season woes and defeated their Round 1 opponents in an impressive fashion. But the further you go, the harder it gets. After a week of rest for fans and players, the Avs will now face the Dallas Stars and start on the road again on Tuesday. Dallas lead the Western Conference with 113 points this season, but like Winnipeg, the only points that matter now are the ones that go in. The last time the Avs won a playoff series against the Stars was 2006, but my hockey brain has suppressed that memory because the agony of the Stars defeating us three times in Game 7s of the Western Conference Finals far outways the two times we beat them in Round 1 (2004 & 2006). It’s time we make this a memorable victory. Let’s Go Avs!
