Avalanche won five straight to secure playoff home-ice … now comes the tough part – The Denver Post

They had coronavirus pauses of nine and seven days. They had 10 sets of back-to-backs. And they had to win their final five games to clinch home-ice advantage.

It was all grinding stuff for the Avs.

Now comes the fun part … and the hard part. The playoffs. Arguably as the favorite. Sixteen wins from glory.

“This is going to be a tough challenge,” Avalanche coach Jared Bednar said after Thursday’s 5-1 win over Los Angeles clinched the Presidents’ Trophy as the NHL’s top regular-season team. “When you look at the field of teams in it, there isn’t a team that anyone can take lightly. Everyone has the ability to win this thing.”

The St. Louis Blues won this thing two years ago and are the Avalanche’s first obstacle this year. The teams begin their best-of-seven series Monday at 8 p.m.

In just the last week-plus, the Avalanche won on off nights (at Vegas), won without center Nathan MacKinnon (four victories over Kings) and won when all systems were pumping (combined 11-1 scoring margin in two wins over Los Angeles).

“I love the way we finished the season, I love the way our guys dug in, (the way) guys stepped into different roles, (the way) different guys chipped in every night,” Bednar said. “We won some ugly games, we won some games we played really well and had a lot of contributors on most nights.”

Exhibit A: J.T. Compher scored a hat trick Wednesday and Tyson Jost, filling in for MacKinnon as the pivot between Gabe Landeskog and Mikko Rantanen, scored twice Thursday. The playoffs are no time for passengers on the figurative bus and the Avalanche have many drivers up and down its lineup.

“As many guys as you can have playing at the top of their game and believing in your system — you need (them) all,” Bednar said.

Eleven players scored at least nine goals and had 30 points apiece. That balance propelled Colorado to the top of the table.

“We checked one box,” said Rantanen, whose 66 points led the Avalanche. “Everybody knows what the next box is.”

Yes we do. Play like the Presidents’ Trophy winners.

Don’t be Washington in ’10 (blew 3-1 first-round lead to Montreal).

Don’t be Vancouver in ’12 (five-game loss to Los Angeles in first round).

And don’t be Tampa Bay in ’19 (first-round skunking by Columbus).

“You can put a target on your back, but you have to be comfortable with that,” Bednar said. “No one will put any more pressure on us then we put on ourselves.”

Winning its last five allowed the Avalanche to start with St. Louis instead of Minnesota. But be wary of the Blues. They have Stanley Cup-winning chops that provide confidence. And they’re playing well. On April 5, they were a floundering .500 team — 16-16-6 and losers of seven consecutive games. But they finished 11-4-3 and had three win streaks of at least three games.

The Avalanche won the season series 5-3, which doesn’t matter anymore.

“It’s a team we know really well; they know us really well,” Bednar said. “It’s a team that has really picked up their game in the second half of the season and they’re looking like the Blues that won the Cup. Even though there is a big spread in points (19), if you look at how they’ve come alive and gotten healthy … this is a really tough opponent.”

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