{"id":33352,"date":"2022-06-02T09:14:01","date_gmt":"2022-06-02T09:14:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/mark-madden-avalanche-oilers-matchup-shows-what-hockey-could-be\/"},"modified":"2022-06-02T09:14:01","modified_gmt":"2022-06-02T09:14:01","slug":"mark-madden-avalanche-oilers-matchup-shows-what-hockey-could-be","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/mark-madden-avalanche-oilers-matchup-shows-what-hockey-could-be\/","title":{"rendered":"Mark Madden: Avalanche-Oilers matchup shows what hockey could be"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Colorado beat Edmonton, 8-6, in the first game of the Western Conference final Tuesday.\n<\/p>\n

That game is how fans want hockey to be: 14 goals, 84 shots, fast, creative, fun, a ton of prime scoring chances and a fierce comeback by the Oilers that fell just short.\n<\/p>\n

The stars delivered: Edmonton’s Connor McDavid and Colorado’s Cale Makar each had three points. The Avalanche’s Nathan MacKinnon and the Oilers’ Leon Draisaitl were among those with two.\n<\/p>\n

It was magnificent. It was a thrill ride.\n<\/p>\n

The drama was helped by not-great goaltending and systemic play that was less than rigid, but so what? Give me skating, skill and scoring over structure, defense and saves.\n<\/p>\n

Ex-Penguin Mike Rupp reacted on Twitter thusly: “If either of these teams play this way in the finals, they will lose to either East team.” The between-periods panel on TNT concurred. That’s probably true, but here’s hoping the attempt gets made.\n<\/p>\n

TNT’s Wayne Gretzky said, “You’ve got to play defense.” OK, but Gretzky sure didn’t. I laughed out loud. Here’s betting Mario Lemieux loved Tuesday’s game.\n<\/p>\n

Edmonton tied the score 2-2 with 23 seconds left in the first period. Colorado scored nine seconds later. The Oilers’ Zack Kassian missed a second-period breakaway that would have knotted things at 4-4; the Avalanche’s Mikko Rantanen netted shortly after. The Oilers were down 7-3 but made it 7-6. The action was non-stop.\n<\/p>\n

That game begs a bunch of questions: Why didn’t either team maneuver to get ex-Pens goalie Marc-Andre Fleury at the trade deadline? Edmonton netminder Mike Smith looks especially overwhelmed. (Colorado’s Darcy Kuemper left the game hurt.)\n<\/p>\n

Why can’t hockey be like this all the time? Why doesn’t the NHL follow the NFL’s path and favor offense via rules and officiating?\n<\/p>\n

Why can’t the hockey media concentrate on how great Tuesday was instead of pointing out how it’s not the way to win? What if it is the way to win? It used to be.\n<\/p>\n

The NHL got lucky with both conference finals: The West is McDavid vs. MacKinnon, hockey’s best vs. somebody who isn’t far behind.\n<\/p>\n

The East features the top two goalies: Tampa Bay’s Andrei Vasilevskiy vs. the New York Rangers’ Igor Shesterkin. Tampa Bay is two-time defending champ. The Rangers are from the NHL’s biggest market.\n<\/p>\n

But the East isn’t nearly as compelling. Goaltending isn’t compelling. Nobody turns on the TV or buys a ticket hoping to see the puck not go in the net. Nothing Vasilevskiy and Shesterkin do can top what happened Tuesday.\n<\/p>\n

The best story in the final would be McDavid vs. Tampa Bay: It would have a \u201cpass the torch\u201d feel like 1983 and ’84 when the New York Islanders played Gretzky’s Oilers. The Islanders won their fourth straight Cup in ’83. The Oilers won in ’84. That was the first of five championships in seven years for Edmonton.\n<\/p>\n

But McDavid vs. the Rangers would be best for the NHL: The biggest star vs. the biggest market.\n<\/p>\n

Colorado might be the best team. But the Avalanche pack comparatively little mainstream name value. MacKinnon is excellent. But “second-best player” doesn’t have the same ring.\n<\/p>\n

Best-case scenario: All the remaining playoff games feature lots of skating, skill and scoring.\n<\/p>\n

Worst-case scenario: Colorado cheap-shot artist Nazem Kadri concusses McDavid, and Rangers headhunter Jacob Trouba takes out Vasilevskiy. That would be typical NHL.\n<\/p>\n

My predictions are Edmonton in seven games, Tampa Bay in six.\n<\/p>\n

Edmonton lost Game 1 of their second-round series to Calgary, 9-6. But that seemed to set a trap, because the Flames didn’t win again. Does Colorado want to play Edmonton’s game? It didn’t work for Calgary. And what if Kuemper can’t play?\n<\/p>\n

Tampa Bay swept Florida in the second round and got eight days off between series. Given the grind of having won the last two Cups and Brayden Point being injured, that respite should serve the Lightning well.\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Colorado beat Edmonton, 8-6, in the first game of the Western Conference final Tuesday. That game is how fans want hockey to be: 14 goals, 84 shots, fast, creative, fun, a ton of prime scoring chances and a fierce comeback by the Oilers that fell just short. The stars delivered: Edmonton’s Connor McDavid and Colorado’s …<\/p>\n

Mark Madden: Avalanche-Oilers matchup shows what hockey could be<\/span> Read More »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"default","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/assets-varnish.triblive.com\/2022\/06\/5107967_web1_AP22152047891281.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33352"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33352"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33352\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33352"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33352"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33352"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}