Tip: Time for the reigning champions to step into the playoff action

Seattle Kraken visit Ball Arena and Colorado Avalanche at Tuesday 10:00 PM ET.

Colorado Avalanche-Seattle Kraken

Colorado with quality in both ends and with Cale Makar back on the ice

The home team has a lot of offensively strong players, such as Nathan MacKinnon and Mikko Rantanen, and besides the two superstars, the Avalanche also has some fire powers further down in the roster with players such as Valeri Nichushkin, JT Compher and Artturi Lehkonen. Good news for Avalanche ahead of tonight’s game, is that last year’s Conn Smythe Trophy winner, the offensively strong defenseman Cale Makar, is set to make his return after missing the last two weeks due to an undisclosed injury. As you can hear, the Avalanche has a solid offense to rely on, and during the regular season was Colorado among the teams that both created the biggest amount of goal scoring chances and among the teams that scored the most goals. The reigning champions has quality in both ends, with a goods goaltender between the posts in Alexandar Georgiev who is confirmed for tonight’s game. The defense was, during the regular season, like the offense, one of the best in the league and with players like Devon Toews and Samuel Girard in the back pairings together with the above-mentioned Cale Makar.

Does Seattle Kraken has enough power to tame the Avalanche?

Seattle Kraken make their playoff debut as they did not qualify for the playoff last year when they made their debut in the NHL. Despite being one of the teams that has scored the most goals this season, my opinion is that the defense is the strongest part of Kraken. They have been really efficient offensively, as they were among the teams that scored the most goals but far away from creating the biggest number of goal scoring chances. Ahead of tonight’s game, the Kraken also has to make it without the Swedish forward Andre Burakovsky, who will miss at least the two first round of the playoffs due to a lower-body injury. Seattle’s defense has this season been one of the best, as just Carolina Hurricanes has conceded fewer shots on goal – but the goaltending question is a concern for Dave Hakstol and his Kraken as none of their two available goaltenders, Philip Grubauer and Martin Jones, was noted for over 0.900 in save percentage during the regular season.

Conclusion and prediction

The reigning Stanley Cup champions Colorado Avalanche is starting their journey to defend the cup tonight. The Avalanche has a strong team to rely on, and won the tough Central Division in front of Dallas Stars and Minnesota Wild. Colorado and Jared Bednar possesses over superstars such as Nathan MacKinnon and Mikko Rantanen, and one on the best defensemen in the league, Cale Makar, is back in the Avalanche roster this evening. Besides these three stars, Avalanche has a good depth in their roster with Valeri Nichushkin, JT Compher, Artturi Lehkonen, Devon Toews and Samuel Girard. On the other side of the ice, we have a Seattle that came up with a good regular season where they were efficient and scored a lot of goals. In my opinion, the back pairings and the defensive game is the strongest part of the Kraken, but I think that the goaltending question possibly will be a concern for Kraken in both this game and the whole series.

In summary, I think that Colorado Avalanche is one number bigger than Seattle Kraken, with quality in all parts of the game, with a good depth in the roster topped with superstar ability in Nathan MacKinnon and Mikko Rantanen. Based on these conditions, I think that it is likely that Colorado will win this game in regular time and take the lead in the series.

My bet is therefore:

Colorado Avalanche FT @ -115 at bet365