Colorado in the playoffs: Day 10 & 11
A daily news recap from the Avalanche camp during their run in the playoffs.The Avalanche have managed to open the score in each of the first three games of the series, yet it only led to one win. “We lost two of the three games when we scored the first goal,” said Nathan MacKinnon. He also added that the team clearly fell the loss of their two best puck-moving defensemen, most notably Sam Girard, saying that he though “G (Sam Girard) was our best defenseman in Game 1. It’s a big loss, hopefully he’ll be back soon.”
The Avs’ lineup remained unchanged for Game 4, as Girard remained out of the lineup despite practicing with the team. What’s worse, Jonathan Bernier is the latest Av to come down with an injury, with Andrew Hammond, who was acquired in the Matt Duchene trade and only played one game for Colorado thus far, scheduled to start Game 5.
Coach Jared Bednar also defended blueliner David Warsofsky, whom many Avs fans have criticized throughout the series. "He's been good. He jumps into a high pressure situation after playing just a handful of games for us. He was better on the power play last game than he was the game before, and we are going to need him to improve again tonight. We are asking a lot of some of those guys, but for me, they are giving us all they have,“ said Bednar.
In other news…
The goals-per-game average reached 8 during the first three games of the series, the highest average in the playoffs. The winning team had to score 5 goals each time to secure a win during those games. The trend ended in Game 4, as the Predators only had to score three goals to secure a victory.
The Avalanche manage to come back from being 0-2 in a playoff series only once in franchise history – in the second round of the 1999 playoffs against the Detroit Red Wings.
Original story by Rudolf Sery
Michal Hezely, Slovakia, hezely@eurolanche.com
19/04/2018 - 23:00
