On Saturday Night the Colorado Avalanche lost to the San Jose Sharks 5-2 giving the Sharks the series win 4 games to 2. Today we will look back at how the Avalanche got into the playoffs, what went wrong & where they go from here.
How they got in:
It's simple, the kids came to play. Chris Stewart led the team with 28 goals. Avalanche rookie Matt Duchene was 2nd with 24 goals and is a candidate for the Calder trophy. Peter Stastny led all scorers with 79 points.
Goaltender Craig Anderson filled a void in net, that Colorado has been trying to fill since Patrick Roy retired in 2003, going 38-25-7 with a goals against average of 2.64 & seven shutouts.
What went wrong:
In all honesty not a lot went wrong. The Avs won Game 1 when a puck went in off the skate of Sharks defenseman Rob Blake with 50 seconds left to give Colorado a 2-1 win.
The Avs won Game 3 when Sharks defenseman Dan Boyle accidentally shot the puck into his own net when trying to make a pass giving Colorado a 1-0 win in overtime.
In Games 2 & 4 Colorado was able to take the Sharks to overtime, losing Game 2 by a score of 6-5 and Game 4 by a score of 2-1. You could make the case that the Avs were very close to sweeping San Jose.
What happened eventually was the Sharks were the better team and took control of the series winning game 5 by a score of 5-0 and winning Game 6 to close out the series.
Where do they go from here:
This team has a good nucleus of young talent. The kids stepped up on offense and the goaltending was solid. I would like to see them get a little younger & deeper on the blue line. If they can repeat what they did this season this team has a good chance to become a playoff mainstay in the West for years to come.
The loss to the Sharks may hurt right now but it will make Colorado better down the road.
I'd just like to point out that at 2-2 when you were vacillating, I correctly called the Sharks winning this series! ;)
ReplyDeleteThey still need to ditch the teal.