San Jose's defensive scheme was evident in the third game of the Round 2 meeting, a 4-2 loss for the Avalanche, and Colorado used that as an educational experience ahead of Game 4.
"Game 3 was definitely frustrating from an offensive standpoint," said forward Colin Wilson. "They were holding us to a minimum amount of shots, but that's why you made the adjustment. It's why it's a seven-game series, and we learned a lot about our opponent in those games.
"I think we learned that in Games 1-3, so we made the adjustments that we're not going to have a lot of rush attacks. They're a very good at reloading and having a third guy high, so we started getting the pucks in and wearing them down low. I think it showed up in [Game 4]."
The Avalanche earned a 3-0 victory on Thursday following the amendment to its offensive mindset. Nathan MacKinnon scored his third game-winning goal of the postseason, Mikko Rantanen had two assists and goaltender Philipp Grubauer posted his first career playoff shutout with a 32-save effort.
"When you're playing a new opponent, they have different strengths and weaknesses and things that give you trouble and things that you like and see from watching the game and then reviewing it on video," said head coach Jared Bednar. "We have to make sure that we're selling that to our team and areas where we can become more consistent or better and create more or give up less, I guess is basically what we're trying to do.
"Again, I thought our guys were excellent in buying into the game plan and finding ways to excel within that game plan [in Game 4]. It was a stingy game, there wasn't a whole lot of chances on either side of it. We just happened to capitalize on some of ours and get a couple saves."
