Dater: Bednar Needs To Eliminate His Stars, DeBoer Jinx

Plus: my prediction for series

Three times Jared Bednar and Pete DeBoer have faced each other in playoff series since 2019. The tally so far: DeBoer, 3-0.

Loss No. 1 came in 2019, in seven games to DeBoer’s San Jose Sharks. After whipping up on No. 1 seed Calgary in the first round, the Avs played the favored Sharks to a seventh game, but had misfortune strike in Game 7. Nathan MacKinnon suffered an arm injury in the first period, and though he would return to the game, it wasn’t enough. That’s also the game in which Gabe Landeskog was blamed for getting off the ice too slow, leading to a too-many-men penalty that the Sharks used to score the game-winning goal. Replays showed it was a bad call, but that and five bucks would be good enough for the Avs to buy a grande cappuccino at Starbucks.