DATER: Quick Thoughts and Observations From Game 1 Avalanche SCF Win

Easy, right? Man, I thought the Colorado Avalanche had won, and lost, that game about 50 times tonight. Does everything have to be so hard? Yeah, this is for the Stanley Cup. Everything is hard.

Quick thoughts and observations:

🥳 #StanleyCup pic.twitter.com/l6iDaWyvtq

— NHL GIFs (@NHLGIFs) June 16, 2022

• Andre Burakovsky was always going to be kind of a wild-card player in a game like this: Remember, he won a Game 7 for Washington against Tampa Bay a few years ago in the Eastern Conference finals. Then, he won a Cup with the Caps. This guy knows pressure. Yet, a lot of people forgot about him after he was hurt in the last round.
• Darcy Kuemper? Look, he just has to win three more games and he’s a Stanley Cup champion. Even if he has a goals-average average of 4.56, you just have to win four games.
•  The average resale ticket for this game was more than $1,000. What is going on out there?
• Andre Vasilevskiy is very beatable as a goalie. Just put some traffic in front of him, get him moving side-to-side and he’s human just like anyone else. Avs showed that tonight, and they probably should have had another couple of goals in the game.
• Nathan MacKinnon was just way faster than anyone on the Tampa Bay side tonight.
• I definitely expect Kuemper to start the next game. But the leash is short.
• Can Nazem Kadri play the next game? I doubt it. I think we”re talking Game 3 at the earliest.
• I think Andrew Cogliano has the same timetable.
• The Colorado Avalanche need to make it 4-1 when it’s a 3-1 lead. Stop letting up still.
• I thought Val Nichushkin was great tonight. Avs need to re-sign this man.
• Colorado Avalanche will have an optional practice tomorrow at Ball Arena.