The Colorado Avalanche came into their first game the clear underdogs.
While they boast the Hart Trophy candidate in Nathan MacKinnon, the Predators have a few things in their favor that make them one of the league favorites for the Stanley Cup. They’ve got offensive depth, a near-perfect blue line, and a Vezina frontrunner in Pekka Rinne to go with some very recent, very deep cough playoff experience.
Although they were the team everyone expected to just go to town, though, things didn’t get started off quite as far in their favor as one might expect.