As the Colorado Avalanche move on to their first Western Conference Finals appearance in 20 years, the degree of difficulty will only increase. There are a few key lessons and takeaways from the prior series that hopefully carry over in their match with the Edmonton Oilers.
Match star power
A lot of focus on this upcoming series in the media and on the ice will be about keeping Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl in check. The Avalanche did a fair job of that in the regular season holding both Oilers forwards off the scoreboard in their three meetings but each has heated up and now leads playoff scoring by a large margin with 26 points each.