Last year’s playoffs were frustrating for the Avalanche (Avs) in the second round where they faced the Las Vegas Golden Knights. Colorado came out strong in game one beating the Golden Knights 7-1. Game two the Avs beat Las Vegas 3-2 taking a two game lead. Game three is when the wheels fell off and the Avs lost the following four games straight, eliminating them from contentions for the Stanley Cup in 2021.
This year the Avs will face off against the team they swept in the first round last year, the St. Louis Blues. During that matchup Avs center Nazem Kadri was penalized and suspended eight games for a check-to-the-head on Blues defenseman Justin Faulk. As a result Kadri will likely have a target on his back.
The Blues are coming off a first round series win against the Minnesota Wild in six games. St. Louis will be a much different team than the first round exits they were last season, however; there seems to be a much different feel about this year’s Colorado Avalanche as well. Colorado has home ice advantage with games one and two at Ball Arena before heading to St. Louis for games three and four.
Game one kicks off (at the time of this writing no results were available) Tuesday night at 7:30 p.m. followed by game two on Thursday, May 19th at 7:20 p.m.
Avs goalie Darcy Kuemper is ready for game one after sitting out the second half of game three against the Predators and all of game four after taking a stick to the face that caused swelling around his right eye.
In other sports the Colorado Rockies were swept last week in their three-game series with the San Francisco Giants. The Rockies avoided a sweep from the Kansas City Royals over the weekend after winning game two of a three-game series with Kansas. This week the Rockies started another three-game series with the Giants losing game one on Monday 7-6. Games two (no results by the time of this writing) and three are Tuesday at 6:40 p.m. and Wednesday at 1:10 p.m.
The Denver Broncos are looking to have a productive training camp after having one of the most productive drafts (despite not have a first round pick) and free agency with the acquisition of Russell Wilson from the Seattle Seahawks.
Several undrafted names to keep a lookout for this training camp, are linebackers Christopher Allen (Alabama), Kana’I Mauga (USC) and Kadofi Wright (Buffalo) all of which can bring great depth to the Broncos this season.
Training camp is scheduled to kick off on Wednesday, July 28, from 9:15 a.m. – 12 noon. Fans will be allowed to attend this season’s training camp, however; no autographs will be allowed due to COVID-19. Fans who plan on attending have also been asked to sign a digital health promise, which can be found at denverbroncos.com/covid19/fanhealth.
