The Minnesota Wild and Colorado Avalanche had themselves a thrilling game Sunday night, as the teams exchanged leads throughout before the Wild would come away with a 3-2 overtime win.
The Wild showed in that game that they can hold their own against the Avalanche, who are arguably the team to beat in the Central Division, if not the Western Conference. With their recent deadline additions boosting the Wild to new heights, Tyler Yaremchuk and Mike McKenna discussed on the Daily Faceoff Show whether or not this game shows that the Wild can put up a fight against the Avalanche in the playoffs if their paths crossed.
Mike McKenna: “I think they have every opportunity to be the team to do so. The more I talk to friends around the league, they all seem to think it’s not just Calgary that can take out Colorado. Minnesota’s got a really good chance as well, and you could see the intensity from the very start of this game.
There were scrums after almost every whistle, huge hits, Matt Dumba lays out Rantanen, and guess who comes to Rantanen’s aid: Nathan MacKinnon. When the captain is out of your lineup, Gabriel Landeskog for Colorado, you’re looking for leadership, MacKinnon steps up, that was a big moment. But this game had everything. The drama, the suspense, the passion, the intensity. There were 35 hits for both of these teams.
And for Minnesota to stay in this game, not letting Colorado run away with it when they had chances to. Some huge saves from Cam Talbot. And by the way, I think that’s the top goaltending tandem in the league now between Cam Talbot and Marc-Andre Fleury. Good luck getting past that duo in the playoffs.
I just think this game was playoffs. You see some of these other ones, it wasn’t like this. It didn’t have this intensity. So, I think that Minnesota’s for real. I think they could easily play a big factor in the playoffs. Cam Talbot’s won seven straight games. Minnesota’s looking pretty good right now.”
Tyler Yaremchuk: “Yeah, they’re looking fantastic. The shots in that game though, they were 42-29 for Colorado, although sometimes that can be a bit of a deceiving number when you’re looking at it on a one-game basis. Colorado, like you said, they are missing Landeskog though, so that’s a boost that they’re going to get come playoff time. But, you talk about the goaltending, the best duo in the league in Talbot and Fleury, and Fleury had his first win with the Wild over the last couple of days as well.
If this was the second round matchup that we get, if we get Minny-Colorado, I wouldn’t be picking Minnesota to win, but I certainly wouldn’t be picking a Colorado sweep or a Colorado win in five games either. Because really, we’ve seen it time and time again in the playoffs, if you have the goaltending, and you have a lineup that’s capable of playing physical and intense like Minnesota does, anything’s possible.”
Mike McKenna: “Absolutely, this has shades of the first round last year when it was the Wild against the Golden Knights, that series went to seven games. Minnesota gave Vegas everything they could handle, and Vegas ended up knocking off Colorado in six just after that. So, I like Minnesota, their game should continue to grow, and like you said Colorado’s got a bit of room as well, but that was a great game, really entertaining.”
You can watch the full episode here…
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