Avalanche vs. Coyotes playoff preview

Kuemper, underdog mentality keys for Arizona against No. 2-seeded Colorado in West first round

By NHL.com @NHLdotcom

August 10, 2020

The first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs features 16 teams in eight best-of-7 series, which start Tuesday.

Today, NHL.com previews the series between the Colorado Avalanche and Arizona Coyotes, which will be played at Rogers Place in Edmonton, the hub city for the Western Conference.

No. 2 Colorado Avalanche vs. No. 7 Arizona Coyotes

Avalanche: 2-0-1 in round-robin; 42-20-8, .657 points percentage in regular season

Coyotes: 3-1 to win qualifier series against Nashville Predators; 33-29-8, .529 points percentage in regular season

Season series: COL 1-1-0; ARI 1-0-1

Game 1 is Wednesday (5:30 p.m. ET; NBCSN, SN360, TVAS)

The Coyotes will try to pull off a second straight series upset when the play the Avalanche in the Western Conference First Round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

The Coyotes, who were the No. 11 seed in the West in the Stanley Cup Qualifiers, defeated the No. 6-seeded Predators in four games. They are in the postseason for the first time since 2012.

"We're all feeling pretty good. Anytime you can win a series, it's a big accomplishment," Arizona goalie Darcy Kuemper said. "We played a really challenging team; they got so much skill over there. But we rose to the occasion and were able to win the series. We're going to enjoy it and start focusing on the next round."

Kuemper is a big reason the Coyotes advanced to the first round; at even strength, he had a .950 save percentage against the Predators. In Game 4, he made 49 saves in a 4-3 overtime victory.

Colorado dropped its bid for the No. 1 seed in the West with a 4-3 overtime loss to the Vegas Golden Knights in their round-robin finale Saturday. The Avalanche had a last-second 2-1 victory against the St. Louis Blues in their opening game of the round-robin and a dominating 4-0 victory against the Dallas Stars, but they also understand that, in a seven-game series, the Coyotes will present different obstacles.

"Arizona has an identity, they play to it every night," coach Jared Bednar said. "They're very consistent in what they do. They're going to make it difficult on our guys, so we're going to have to be ready to deal with their checking. It's nothing that we haven't seen before. They're a real good hockey team, they've proven it already here in the bubble."

This will be the second playoff series between the teams; Colorado defeated Arizona in five games in the 2000 Western Conference Quarterfinals.

Game breakers

Avalanche: Center Nathan MacKinnon, a finalist for the Hart Trophy, awarded to the player voted NHL MVP, finished fifth in the League with 93 points (35 goals, 58 assists) in 69 games. He had 43 more points than Colorado's second-leading scorer, rookie defenseman Cale Makar. MacKinnon scored three points (one goal, two assists) in three round-robin games.

Coyotes: Taylor Hall picked up where he left off in the regular season, when the forward led Arizona with 27 points (10 goals, 17 assists) in 35 games after being acquired in a trade from the New Jersey Devils on Dec. 16. He scored four points (one goal, three assists), had 10 shots on goal, and led Coyotes forwards in average ice time (19:38) against the Predators.

Goaltending

Avalanche: Philipp Grubauer and Pavel Francouz each is a viable option to start, according to Bednar, especially if there are back-to-back games. Grubauer is expected to get the Game 1 start based on seniority and having played so well in the 2019 playoffs, when Colorado advanced to the second round, losing to the San Jose Sharks in seven games. Grubauer started two of the three round-robin games and went 1-0-1, making the save on 53 of 58 shots (.914 save percentage). Francouz made 27 saves to shut out the Stars.

Coyotes: Kuemper was Arizona's MVP in the qualifier series against Nashville. He had a 2.77 goals-against average and .933 save percentage, allowing 11 goals on 163 shots. He had a 2.17 GAA and .929 save percentage in 25 regular-season starts before sustaining a lower-body injury Dec. 19 that kept him out for more than two months.

Numbers to know

Avalanche: Francouz tied for fifth in the NHL in save percentage (.923) and was seventh in GAA (2.41), the first Colorado goalie to finish in the top 10 in both categories since David Aebischer in 2003-04.

Coyotes: Phil Kessel scored four points (one goal, three assists) in four games against the Predators and has 81 points (34 goals, 47 assists) in 91 NHL postseason games. He won the Stanley Cup twice with the Pittsburgh Penguins (2016, 2017). Kessel led Arizona with two power-play points (two assists) in the qualifier series; he scored 17 power-play points (nine goals, eight assists) in the regular season.

X-factors

Avalanche: Makar is a finalist for the Calder Trophy, awarded to the player voted NHL rookie of the year. He finished second among rookies with 50 points (12 goals, 38 assists) in 57 games. Makar is on the first defense pair with Ryan Graves and runs the No. 1 power-play unit.

Coyotes: Clayton Keller was one of the most consistent performers in training camp, and it has continued in the postseason. The forward had four points (two goals, two assists), eight shots on goal and three takeaways in an average of 12:43 of ice time in four games against the Predators in a second-line role with Derek Stepan and Conor Garland.

They said it

"I don't think we have ever seen a stronger lineup than this in [my] tenure here, so this is very exciting and I think we are just scratching the surface on what we can do. Having said that, we haven't accomplished anything, we haven't done anything, so we still have that chip on our shoulder and we are still going into this thing to prove to people that we are ready for this. We are going to keep growing through this, and we are going to learn from this. I am real confident, real excited to see what our group can do, and it should be a fun ride." -- Avalanche captain Gabriel Landeskog

"We generally have a quiet team, but I saw another element to our team in this play-in [round]; I saw players step out of their comfort zone. You have to add some juice (with no fans in the building). It's quiet, [but] players did a great job coming out of their comfort zone and that helped us against Nashville for sure and [that] needs to continue." -- Coyotes coach Rick Tocchet

Will win if …

Avalanche: Grubauer plays as well as he did in the 2019 playoffs, when he won seven games and had a 2.30 GAA. But he's only won one playoff series in the NHL; Grubauer was a member of the Washington Capitals' Stanley Cup championship team in 2018 but was Braden Holtby's backup for the final 22 playoff games after being pulled in Game 2 and posting a 4.55 GAA in the first round. Francouz has played one postseason game in the NHL.

Coyotes: Kuemper continues to be their best player and everyone in the lineup makes contributions in some way. The Coyotes had 11 players with at least one goal, eight with at least two points, seven with at least five blocked shots and four with at least 10 hits in the Qualifiers.