Colorado's worst enemy in second round is themselves

St Louis proved they can be competitive in the 2022 playoffs by taking down the much-fancied Minnesota Wild in six games but the Colorado Avalanche have too much talent not to overcome the demons from last year's collapse against the Golden Knights.

Video Transcript

JULIAN MCKENZIE: What about St. Louis and Colorado? That might be the closest to what we have of a David versus Goliath situation. The Blues were swept by the Avalanche last year. Could they get swept this year? I highly doubt it. The Blues look a little bit better than they were last year. The Avalanche-- this is a make it or break it year. A lot of people are picking them to win the Stanley Cup.

I think most of us, when we had our playoff predictions episode, picked the Avalanche to win the Stanley Cup. I see the Avalanche winning this series. Maybe they'll lose a game or two against the Blues. They have that depth of scoring. All those 20 goal scorers-- I think it's nine on that team? It's ridiculous that they have as many goals scorers with the Colorado Avalanche.

You're talking about Connor McDavid being an And1 Mixtape. Cale Makar is the closest thing we have in the NHL to a point guard on skates. He is insane. And he could easily dominate this series on his own. I think the Colorado Avalanche are winning this in six. What about you, Avry?

AVRY LEWIS-MCDOUGALL: You say six, Julian? I'm going to say Colorado in five.

JULIAN MCKENZIE: Ooh.

AVRY LEWIS-MCDOUGALL: I think yes, the Blues do win a game. But again, you mention right there, the amount of guys who scored 20 goals or more in Colorado-- you got McKinnon, you got Landeskog. You got-- the defensive coordinator is great. You got Darcy Kuemper, who played well for the Avalanche. I just think it's too much firepower, too balanced of a team, for the Blues to overcome. Even though St. Louis, yes, is a better team, I still think it's way too much.

We saw Colorado just swatting aside the Predators. We saw them say, hey Roman, you don't see 90 points? Gone.

JULIAN MCKENZIE: Iced out.

AVRY LEWIS-MCDOUGALL: We saw the Avalanche just brush them off like a little gnat. So I'm going to go Avs in five.

JULIAN MCKENZIE: Omar?

OMAR: Yeah, man. Colorado has to be the worst team to play against, because the waves of offense-- like, wave after wave, and then even on the blue line, you have so many defensemen who can move the puck and make plays. So yeah, I don't see St. Louis winning this. Like, you got-- same thing, pick Colorado to win the cup. I'll say Colorado-- why not, I'll say them in 5 too. Let's spice things up.

JULIAN MCKENZIE: Ooh. OK. All right. So fives and sixes. Cuth, are you going different?

JUSTIN CUTHBERT: Different in the number, for sure. Because I think St. Louis could be very, very competitive. I think for both teams, the first round went about as good as it possibly could. I guess St. Louis could have won in four or five, like Colorado did. But to expect that would have been, I think, silly, given the quality of the opponent.

So getting through Minnesota the way that they did, I don't think we should sleep on them. We shouldn't sleep on the demons either that Colorado has in the second round. If they meet some adversity, are they going to be able to overcome it? I think they will, eventually.

Even though the team isn't materially different than it was before? I guess the goaltending situation has improved, but they folded just last year in a similar situation versus a similar team in the Vegas Golden Knights. So it could happen again. But I think it's their time this year. So I will continue to pick Colorado. And we'll go six.