Aarif Dean

We all remember they were 55, 60 minutes away from winning the Stanley Cup.

It's very rare to have a team have the best offense, the best defense.

That was kind of the LA series.

It was

All right, we're not going to push on offense.

We're not going to sit here and cheat for offense.

We're also not going to get stuck in a physical game.

We're going to go through four games, make it feel as preseason-y as possible so that we're ready for the second round.

And it was by design.

And so many people were so worried about, well, the Avalanche scored 13 goals in the first round.

They only had eight through the first three games and all this.

And then they come out in game one and put up nine.

against minnesota they're like all right well we're no longer in that series so it's like it was kind of a flex move that we can win in any way we can do the defensive thing and and we have what it takes to be the offensive powerhouse or the defensive powerhouse eric before we let you go um what have you thought of minnesota in this series

The, I don't want these to be like the kind of words that get clipped and, and, and sound terrible, but I'm a little underwhelmed and, and that might just be because, uh, I'm so scarred by 2019, 2021, uh, actually 20, 24, 25.

I'm just scarred by losing to Peter DeBoer every year.

Uh, so, um, I am a little underwhelmed and I don't know if it's because.

Minnesota and Dallas are both really strong teams, but I had this theory coming into the playoffs that it's like, these are two really, really good teams, but I don't think they're as close to the avalanche as people want to think they are.

Sure.

I don't know if it's that or if it's the lack of a coach like Pete DeBoer, who's just, if Pete DeBoer is good at something, maybe it's not, you know,

having a good relationship with their goalies, but he is very good at in-series adjustments.