Avalanche puck possession key to slowing down McDavid, Draisaitl

The Coaches Room is a regular feature throughout the 2021-22 season by former NHL coaches and assistants who will turn their critical gaze to the game and explain it through the lens of a teacher. Rocky Thompson and Dave Barr will take turns providing insight.
In this edition, Thompson, who was an assistant with the Edmonton Oilers in 2014-15 and an associate coach with the San Jose Sharks in 2020-21, takes an advance look at the Western Conference Final between the Colorado Avalanche and Edmonton Oilers.

There are a lot of reasons to be excited about the Western Conference Final between the Colorado Avalanche and Edmonton Oilers.
Connor McDavid of the Oilers and Nathan MacKinnon of the Avalanche going head to head is going to be must-see. It's so apparent in their play how much each player wants it. You can even see it from their recent interviews.
McDavid has been almost impossible to stop with 26 points (seven goals, 19 assists) in 12 games, sharing the lead in the Stanley Cup Playoffs with teammate Leon Draisaitl. McDavid came into the playoffs having won his fourth Art Ross Trophy as NHL scoring champion with 123 points (44 goals, 79 assists) in 80 games.
MacKinnon has been the clear leader of the Avalanche and shares the team scoring lead with defenseman Cale Makar, each with 13 points in 10 games. MacKinnon, who has a playoff-leading 55 shots on goal, has eight goals and five assists and Makar has three goals and 10 assists.
RELATED: [Complete Avalanche vs. Oilers series coverage]
The route each took to the Western Conference Final was impressive
Edmonton was somehow able to break the Calgary Flames' defensive gap in the second round, and it was gates open for McDavid. Angling him or catching him is next to impossible and with space; he generated speed and did it over and over. He was so dangerous, with a slip pass to Draisaitl, who's a great playmaker and a 50-goal scorer himself, or a pass to Evander Kane, who's a great shooter and leads the playoffs with 12 goals in 12 games.
The Avalanche's top six have become so interchangeable. They were using Artturi Lehkonen with MacKinnon and Gabriel Landeskog while Valeri Nichushkin was with Nazem Kadri and Mikko Rantanen but however those guys fit together, it's been explosive.
Colorado is riding a high. They could always get stymied, just like Calgary's Johnny Gaudreau and Matthew Tkachuk in the last round, but I really think this is another level for Edmonton to face bigger and more talented opposition forwards that will be tough to contain.
And that's the thing about Colorado's attack: They were able to get up ice and make the St. Louis Blues defend so much in the last round. The Blues defended well but the volume of time they played without the puck started to wear on them.
Let's just stipulate right now that this series is likely to produce a lot of scoring chances. So who can get a handle on those scenarios, maybe control them a little better than their opponent, will be key.
In pondering how this goes, I believe possession will be important for Colorado in the offensive zone. They run, as we have discussed previously, a lot of high-ice plays, and if their top guys are going to be against McDavid's line, Colorado's offensive-zone possession will fuel either scoring chances for the Avalanche or, if changes of possession occur, Edmonton's transition game, which is so dangerous.
How to defend the Oilers' top guys will bring Avalanche coach Jared Bednar to a key decision on defensemen and I have to think he'll choose Makar and Devon Toews in most situations.
Makar has so many tools that can be effective in this situation. On top of all his skills and his great instincts, he's got great speed, speed that can potentially come close to matching McDavid's. Nobody defends McDavid successfully with brute strength and physicality. What's most important is that Makar is quick and could contain his opponent and stay in his way. He won't be trying to corner him and finish him physically. When you do that, McDavid just spins on a dime and accelerates, and you're left holding the bag wondering what happened.

Goaltending tops my other areas to watch.
Mike Smith (8-3, 2.70 goals-against average, .927 save percentage) of the Oilers has been sharp. He got a reboot and a reset after being pulled early in Game 1 against Calgary and looks locked in to me.
And in Game 4, when that long shot when in off the stick of Calgary's Rasmus Andersson to tie it 3-3 in the third period, that could have been a series-breaker, but Edmonton came back and won, including with a few good saves from Smith near the end that helped lock it down.
Darcy Kuemper (6-2, 2.44 GAA, .904 save percentage) of the Avalanche is also looking good to me. The only goals he seemed to allow in the second round against the Blues were those wacky deflection goals, sometimes off his own teammates, and you can never fault a goalie on those. He's been rock-solid for me.
The adversity factor has been much discussed regarding the Avalanche. How they handled it in the second round was an important signal.
They had to go back to St. Louis for Game 6 and ended up facing a strong goaltending performance from Ville Husso. They had to come from behind in the third period to tie the game and ultimately won it with 5.6 seconds left in regulation. It was a good mental test for Colorado to come through it the way they did. There were many challenges for the players and staff, all those ups and downs in the last few games. They handled them so well, with composure and control.
Colorado will be missing defenseman Samuel Girard for the remainder of the playoffs with a fractured sternum and teammate Bowen Byrum's ability to step in and fill in with more meaningful minutes, moving pucks, transitioning well and defending pretty well for a young guy has helped the Avalanche a lot.
Colorado's penalty-killing is another key for me.
Edmonton wielded its power play (28.2 percent in the playoffs) with force in the second round, scoring key goals, four in the final four games of the series, and exerting pressure that gave the Flames trouble.
So Colorado's improved penalty-killing, with a more aggressive approach, is going to need to step up here. That pressure game needs to have an impact, given how well the Oilers made plays in the second round when they were given time. Pressure can come with consequences, but it will force Edmonton to make plays quicker and could disrupt the momentum and rhythm of their power play. I think that will be worth the risk because passiveness is likely fatal against Edmonton and in this scenario, it would leave Kuemper vulnerable.
And in a series with so much star power, when games get tight and they will, each team's top lines may end up neutralizing each other, it will usually come down the bottom six forwards that squeeze out the important goal.
Most of Edmonton's bottom six forwards have yet to break through but Colorado has already had some difference-maker contributions late in the second round to seal the series against St. Louis. J.T. Compher had two goals in Game 6 and Darren Helm had the game-winning goal, for important examples.