The Colorado Avalanche clinched the series on Friday night, April 19. Meanwhile, the first round can keep going on until Wednesday, April 24.
Last night, the San Jose Sharks-Vegas Golden Knights game went to double overtime. San Jose won, so the series goes to a Game 7, in San Jose. That will happen Tuesday. Regardless of who wins, the second round likely won’t start before April 26, giving Colorado a full week of rest.
And time to heal. The Stanley Cup playoffs are notoriously a time for players to get banged up. Indeed, Colorado saw Samuel Girard go down with an upper body injury in Game 2.