Colorado showed a lot of heart in game three and put up the best fight I’ve ever seen from them, and we still almost won. Our two wins were blowouts; their lone win came after trailing in the 3rd period. I’m still feeling good.
Avs did start the third period with a 3-1, but then we started dominating the final third just like we have in the first two games. Three goals in six minutes, starting with this absolute rocket our badass Russian rookie…
We ended up leading 4-3 with eight minutes to go, but to the Avs credit they put up a fight to stay alive. Good on them for not making such an easy kill. I’m impressed, but also not TOO impressed.
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The series restarts with a back-to-back today and tomorrow. The Avs can’t beat us twice in a back-to-back, so we’ll go into Wednesday up 3-2 minimum if it goes that far.
Colorado might get some reinforcements with the postponement break. They get defenseman Nikita Zadurov today, and might get forward Matt Calvert tomorrow or Wednesday. The latter is more important, so hopefully we bury them before it comes to that. I’m pretty confident we will.
Another game, another domination by the Dallas Stars. Razor proclaimed this series to be over already and I have to agree. We absolutely own this team and are living rent free inside their heads.
Colorado did have a good start because their coach went nuclear to fire them up, and then we hurt ourselves with four early penalties. Avs scored twice but couldn’t bury us because Dobby is playing out of his mind. 19 saves off 20 shots in the first period alone.
Then came the 5v3s…
Last game swung on two 5v3's in the 2nd period. Stars scored twice with theirs while Avalanche choked on the other end.
For us, it was two goals in 43 seconds. For them, it was tight stick gripping and choking. From that point on, it was a rout.
Four total goals in the second period and one more ten seconds into the 3rd. Final score of this beatdown: 5-2 Stars.
The Avalanche are just plain and simple not ready for high level playoff hockey. They remind me a lot of the Lightning of recent years. Great talent, especially at the top end, but severely lacking in the physicality and tenacity required to win hard playoff series.
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One key stat that stands out is 3rd period high danger scoring chances. We’ve given up TWO total. One each in both games. We are killing them in closeout time.
There’s several possible reasons for this. We have that one year of Hitch hockey that might be finally reaping all the dividends now. We also have more depth and are beating them up all game to make them gassed by the end.
Then there’s the fact that the Avs are just arrogant. Razor brought this up yesterday morning and said they’ve been playing arrogantly just like they did against us in the glory days. They have all the talent for scoring but aren’t working to get better chances for that scoring.
High danger chances are essentially shots from right in front of the goal or close rebounds. The Avs love their sniping game and think they’re dangerous from anywhere past the blue line. That’s not gonna cut it against Dobby.
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Speaking of Dobby, he was the obvious #1 hero of the night. 38 saves over 40 shots. Unreal.
His Russian buddy Radulov, who I had soured on until Tuesday night, had another goal and assist. That’s five total points over two games.
I fucking love Russians.
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The series is 2-0 and the odds have now completely flipped from +240 Stars to +231 Avs. We have a chance to bury them tonight. At the very minimum, we win one of these next two and then go to a back-to-back for games 5/6 that Colorado is definitely not cut out for taking both of.
1999 vibes are getting stronger and stronger by the day.
Stars +240 eh oddsmakers? I know a bookie or two who may be pissed at that one, you fucken pricks. Chalk game 1 up as a Stars domination.
And when I say domination, I mean right from the start. It took just two shifts for Benn and Seguin to link up on a forechecking goal.
Two things we haven’t seen in forever – early game domination and a Seguin goal. Our favorite bro king had been scoreless (on the ice) for 13 games over six months before that. He’s a streaky scorer and this is the series where we’ll most need a streak from him. Awesome timing.
Physicality and veteran tenacity had to stand out for us in this series, and that’s exactly what we got in the opening goal. We also needed our depth to show out, and our checking line ticked all of the above in a huge shift 10 minutes into the game.
It started with Comeau taking Colorado’s best defenseman and alternate captain to the training room and out of the series for good.
It ended with Comeau scoring a goal. It was the second of three total goals we scored on Grubauer over 24 minutes before he joined Johnson on the series ending injury list. Check off goaltending as another advantage we needed and are currently killing it in so far.
Grubauer ruled out indefinitely. His series is over after 24 minutes of play and it was a disaster. Germans should stick to basketball and soccer#PartyLikeIts1999pic.twitter.com/H8f5cpJais
Grubauer’s replacement is some Czech fucker named Pavel Francouz. He hasn’t done anything in the NHL, but he might be pretty decent because he was a KHL star and got a $2M/yr contract to backup for the Avs. Still, he’s never taken Grubauer’s spot and Grubauer’s not that good to begin with. The chances of us running into a hot goalie like Talbot last series get slimmer.
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Also of note for us is that Radulov scored twice. I’ve been so sick of Radulov all playoffs and thought he was finished. If he starts get going and we have TWO Russians raining goals (him and Gurianov), this team gets scary good.
At this point, it’s more than reasonable to expect this series to end up at the same point that Mavs-Clippers would be at right now without the bullshit KP ejection – a comfortable 3-1 lead for Dallas.
The Avs may be talented, but just like the Lightning the past few years they still have to prove they can handle the trials of high level playoff hockey. It’s a different game and it’s one we’ve proven we can play. They haven’t, and it showed on Friday night.
That being said, this MacKinnon fellow, good golly Jesus he is frightening…
Game 2 in a couple hours. Let’s get one tonight and two more after that so we can party just like 1999.
The throwback series between Stars and Avs begins tonight. Back in the glory days, we beat them back-to-back in the Western conference finals, and this year it will be a virtual conference final as we are easily the two best teams in the West.
Yes the Avs are sick year and the only team I was worried about beating coming into this, but that doesn’t mean I think they’re better us. I’m just not as confident as last series. Still, Stars +240 is a slap in the face by Vegas and if it wasn’t going to make me rich I would be pissed about it.
You should pound this as well. Here’s why…
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Miro > MacKinnon – everyone is obsessing over Nathan MacKinnon and for good reason, but Miro Heiskanen is the best young player in the league. He’s possibly even the best defenseman right now. As I said in the last blog, he is Zubov reincarnate especially in the playoffs.
Miro is just as deadly on offense as MacKinnon and he’s a shut down defender as well. Give me a stud d-man over a stud forward any day. Just like Zubov got the better of Sakic, Miro will get the better of MacKinnon.
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Goaltending – the jury is still out on Grubauer as a good goalie, much less a good playoff goalie. He is 18th in the league with a .919 sv%. Who’s first in the league? That would be Dobby at .930. Our Russian > their Nazi.
We also have a second goalie in Ben Bishop who finished 10th in the league in sv% and has been an absolute god in the playoffs over the past five years (including last year). He’s been nursing an injury for awhile but he should be healthy enough to start one of the back-to-backs in games 5/6. That’s huge.
Back in the glory days, Belfour vs Roy was a goalie battle for the ages. This year, it’s a bit lopsided.
Dobby saved 28/29 shots on Tuesday night, included all 15 in the 3rd period. He is the fucking man
Depth – The Avs are known for their top studs, but we have a full squad. The only weakness is our third pairing of d-men, but that doesn’t matter when Miro and Jamie ‘The Big Rig’ Oleksiak are playing half the game.
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Veteran Grit – unlike most sports, grit usually wins out over youth in the NHL Playoffs. That’s why the Avs lost to a garbage ass Sharks team last year. It’s also reason #2 (behind bogus officiating) that we lost to the cup-winning Blues in seven games last year.
Since then, we’ve added Corey Perry and Captain America JoePa Pavelski. They’ve been killing it in the playoffs so far. The Avs can skate fast and that’s cool, but they’re gonna have to stay fully healthy all series for that to matter. Ask Tkachump about that.
The Stars have some youth too, by the way. The aforementioned Miro, Roope Hintz, and Denis Gurianov is the best Euro trio in the league.
The Avs have a mild advantage in youth/finesse maybe. We have a huge advantage in grit/physicality for sure. Overall advantage: Dallas Stars easy.
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Season Series Sweep – we swept all four games in the season series. I know the Avs finished higher in the standings, but how on earth can we be a +240 underdog to them? Lock it in
Last night’s game six vs Texans-Chiefs divisional round – which do you got for the best comeback blowout of 2020? I enjoyed both but last night was certainly more exciting for me.
Much like the series itself, the Stars were caught sleeping at the wheel early on. We barely made it past five minutes before it was 3-0 Flames. Luckily, Milan Lucic got arrogant and took a stupid penalty so Miro could activate his god mode.
Miro is so fucking awesome. People are sleeping on him because Luka has such a huge spotlight for Dallas already. The odds of one city having the best young player in both basketball and hockey at the same time are so slim, and everyone is in denial about the fact it is happening for Dallas.
Miro averaged a cool 2 points per game this series. He did that as a defenseman. It’s good for 2nd in the league this postseason and everyone else on the list plays forward. He is Zubov reincarnate, especially in the playoffs and that goes back to last year too.
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From that goal on it was an onslaught. Seven straight scores. Denis Gurianov was ready to see round 2.
A hat trick for our badass Russian rookie Denis Gurianov 🇷🇺🇷🇺
He ended up getting a fourth that made Matthew Tkachump very very sad. That’s right prick, next time hold on flopping until after the very first period of a series if you want to play more.
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The Flames are fully extinguished. Finally. I prefer we did it in four or five games, but six was the maximum acceptable outcome and we achieved that. I’m satisfied.
We did a lot of things that good teams don’t do, like giving up a shorthanded goal and the opening goal almost every single game. But only good teams can pull off the comebacks we did and end a series like that in dominant fashion. The Cup lifting potential is definitely there.
Next up is a throwback series vs the Avs. Colorado is the best team in the league, but we can beat them because we swept them in all four games during regular season. Bring on the challenge. After all, can we really party like it’s 1999 without beating down the Avs first?
Stars win game 5 last night and now have a chokehold on the trash ass Flames. That’s more fucking like it.
One more win tonight and we move on to a glory days rematch vs the Avs. We need that win tonight and not Saturday so we can get some rest for rd2. Those Avs look gooood.
The Stars look good too though. In the first four games, we dominated possession stats but couldn’t consistently put it together for wins. On Tuesday night, the Flames were able to match us in anal ytic metrics but we outshined them in grit.
Here were the top three moments in grit:
1 – Faksa headhunting Johnny Hockey in minute one (Tkachump still out btw)
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2 – Dickinson stabbing TJ Brodie in the face
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3 – Corey Perry bringing out his inner Matvichuk. Dare I say, I’m actually starting to like this old man?
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The opening goal was gritty as hell too. Finally, we are the ones scoring shorthanded goals. Also finally, we are the ones scoring first!
It’s huge seeing Benn and Seguin get into a groove together. We’re going to NEED that against Colorado. Seguin hasn’t looked himself all series – he’s definitely banged up and is going through one of his ‘post hitting’ funks. This is the type of assist he needs to get that confidence going and kickstart more odd man rushes.
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And Klingberg, my sweet love that I never doubted, what a beautiful game winner…
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Last but not least we have to give it up to our badass Russian goaltender Anton Khudobin. AKA ‘Dobby’. What a fucking beast. He’s not a backup – he’s a second starter.
An absolute brick wall all night but especially in the 3rd period. God he’s the fucking man.
7th Floor Krewe 
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