Avalanche vs. St. Louis Blues: Three keys for Game 2 – The Denver Post

The Avalanche and St. Louis Blues meet for Game 2 of their first-round playoff series Wednesday night at Ball Arena (8:30 p.m., CNBC, ALT).

Here are three keys for the Avs going up 2-0 in the series:

Get Kadri going. Avalanche second-line center Nazem Kadri was fabulous in last year’s playoffs, producing nine goals and 18 points in 15 games. But he’s struggled this year (11 goals) and has just one goal in his last 28 games. He was pointless and minus-1 in Monday’s Game 1. The Avs, who dropped Kadri to the No. 2 power play in favor of Joonas Donskoi, need more from their second-line center. Kadri has 35 NHL playoff games under his belt, and he needs to step up and erase whatever mental issues have resonated from his scoring slump. Otherwise, he’ll be banished to the third line or perhaps drop to a $4.5 million fourth-line winger who focuses on playing tough and mixing it up.

MacKinnon vs. O’Reilly. The Avs won the battle of the top lines in Game 1, and between whistles, Colorado coach Jared Bednar didn’t attempt to avoid sending out the Nathan MacKinnon line after St. Louis sent out Ryan O’Reilly’s line. MacKinnon and wingers Gabe Landeskog and Mikko Rantanen were a combined plus-8. O’Reilly’s line with Brayden Schenn and Jaden Schwartz was minus-8. The Blues expect O’Reilly’s line to contain MacKinnon and company, and if that doesn’t unfold again Wednesday night, St. Louis will probably return home in a 2-0 series hole.

Win special teams, again. The Avs’ success in Game 1 included a successful power play (1-for-3) and a perfect penalty kill (2-for-2). Defenseman Ryan Graves committed Colorado’s two minor penalties that led to Blues power plays. Graves inadvertently threw the puck out of play from the defensive zone for a delay-of-game infraction in the second period and tripped fourth-line winger Sammy Blais in the third. Otherwise, the Avs checked well (16 hits) without reaching to defend with their sticks. The penalty kill was fantastic and forward Tyson Jost and defensemen Devon Toews and Patrik Nemeth seemed to spearhead that effort.

Source: Read Full Article