3 Reasons St. Louis Blues Can Beat Colorado And 3 They Won’t
By Todd Panula
Won’t: Colorado at home
As tough as the Colorado Avalanche are going to be for any team in general, the fact they have home ice throughout the playoffs will make things extra difficult. That’s because the Avs were near unbeatable at the newly christened Ball Arena.
In the regular season, the Avalanche finished with a home record of 22-4-2. Only the Carolina Hurricanes had fewer losses in regulation on home ice, but they still lost more overall as they had five OTL to go with their three regulation losses.
So, any team that beats the Avalanche will have to win their own home games and pray they can steal one on the road. That’s not going to be easy.
It’s not as though Colorado front loaded all these wins either. They got even harder to beat on home ice in the last three months of the season.
From March until the end of the 2021 season, the Avalanche went 16-0-1 in their own rink. Making matters worse, you better get off to a great start on their ice too.
The Avs went 17-1-1 in Denver when they scored the first goal of the game. Colorado went 12-0-1 when they led after the first period and 17-0-0 if they had the lead after 40 minutes were gone.
Needless to say, if the Blues don’t score first and don’t lead when the second period is over, the chances of winning that game are slim and none. There are always times when those kinds of numbers can turn on a team, but don’t expect it.