Avs Focused On Improving as Series Shifts to St. Louis

The Colorado Avalanche is up 2-0 in its first-round matchup against the St. Louis Blues, but the club sees room for improvement as the series shifts to Enterprise Center for the next two outings.
"We're going to see St. Louis' best game to date, and we have to be prepared for that," said Avalanche head coach Jared Bednar after today's morning skate. "We're going to have to be a lot better than we were in Game 2."

Colorado won the second contest of the best-of-seven set by a 6-3 score on Wednesday at Ball Arena, which included holding what appeared to be a commanding 3-0 advantage midway through the second period. However, the Blues made a strong push in the second half of the contest and cut the Avs' lead to one goal twice before a couple late empty-net markers at the end.
The Avs had a 19-6 edge in shots on goal in the first period on Wednesday, but St. Louis went on to outshoot Colorado 29-15 in the final 40 minutes of play.
"Our goal is to play a complete 60 minutes. I thought we did a lot of real good things in Game 1 and Game 2, but we didn't play a full 60 to the standard that we've set for our team," Bednar said. "Our guys are aware of that. They've seen some things that we've done well, they've seen some things that we need to improve upon and we got to get more consistent at, and that's our goal here tonight."
The Avalanche is expecting another strong response from its opponent tonight with the Blues getting home-ice advantage for the next two contests and wanting to avoid going down 3-0 in the series. While that deficit isn't an impossible climb, it is one that has only been accomplished four times in NHL history.
"We got to be better, for sure," said defenseman Samuel Girard. "They're home in front of their fans. We have to be better out there as well. We have to be ready."
Since moving to Denver for the 1995-96 campaign, the Avs are 13-1 in series after winning the first two games.
Getting wins No. 3 and 4 will be the toughest challenges yet for the club.

LINEUP NOTES

Carl Soderberg will make his debut in the 2021 playoffs, appearing in his first game for the Avalanche since May 10 at the Vegas Golden Knights. Nazem Kadri will miss his first contest of the postseason as he is suspended pending a hearing later today with the NHL Department of Player Safety due to an illegal check to the head in Game 2.
Bednar did not say where exactly Soderberg will play in the lineup, but he did note that there will be some line shuffling going on.
"If we're going to get to where we want to go in these playoffs, we're going to need everyone," Bednar said. "We've got guys that are injured and out of the lineup already, we've had other guys that Joe has acquired that have come in and stepped in for them. We've got some guys who are out, we've got some guys on the taxi squad that have played for us. All that depth will be needed. Losing Naz, someone else has to step up and go into his place and Carl will come into the lineup. Shuffle some lines around, and we'll get ready to go here for tonight."
Goaltender Philipp Grubauer will get the start, his 22nd with the Avalanche in his postseason career.
View: Avalanche Game 3 Projected Lineup vs. Blues

NOTEWORTHY

Ryan Graves is celebrating his 26th birthday today.
Nathan MacKinnon has a league-leading five goals and seven points through the first two games of the 2021 playoffs. MacKinnon surpassed the 60 career playoff points in his 42nd game on Wednesday, tied for the fifth-fastest skater in Stanley Cup Playoffs history to reach the 60-point mark.
MacKinnon is the first player in franchise history to have five goals through the team's first two playoff contests. The only other Colorado/Quebec skater with multiple goals in each of the team's first two games in a postseason was Peter Forsberg in 1998.
Colorado's top line of Gabriel Landeskog (one goal, four assists), Nathan MacKinnon (five goals, two assists) and Mikko Rantanen (four assists) has combined for 16 points and a plus-13 rating in the first two games of this series.

ONE TIMERS

Head coach Jared Bednar on the Blues becoming more physical in Game 3: "Teams' game plan against us is to come out and play us physical, and that's been the same all year long. I think it's part of how people think they can beat us. I don't expect them to be any different than what they did in Game 1 or Game 2 from a physicality standpoint. Like I said prior to the series, our team's prepared for it. We've been prepared for it all year, and I expect our guys to come out and play hard as well."
Forward Carl Soderberg on playing in the Stanley Cup Playoffs: "We all dream about winning. It's all about winning. We have a good lead right now, try and get the next game. I haven't played so far, but I'm obviously very excited to get in tonight. It will be a lot of fun."
Defenseman Samuel Girard on how he's felt since returning to the lineup from his lower-body injury: "It wasn't too bad. I had two games before the playoffs. So just to get back into shape a little bit. It wasn't too bad."