Game 2 Running Diary: Avs Come Back For 3-2 Win

Follow the in-game ramblings of Pat as the Avs even the series!

Pic courtesy of @Avalanche

PREGAME:

• Waiting for the Avs game to start and have on the Maple Leafs and Lightning. Seems like losing a bad Game 1 isn’t the death sentence some made it out to be. Florida, Dallas and Edmonton proved that last night. Toronto is doing it now. Hopefully the Avs can follow suit tonight.

• Dater is REALLY positive about tonight’s game as you can read in his post earlier today. In it, he talks about lineup changes at the top, Cale Makar being a more efficient shooter and some new injuries that continue to plague the team this season.

• I’m looking forward to seeing the defense bounce back. Makar played his first game back after being gone for a stretch with an injury. Toews had a brutal turnover that lead to a goal. And Erik Johnson played despite thinking he was the healthy scratch until after warmups. I have to believe that he wasn’t fully mentally prepared to play and wasn’t as sharp as he would’ve liked to start the game.

• The Avs posted this pic to Twitter earlier, but since Mr. Musk doesn’t allow for tweets to be embedded on this site anymore, here is a look at the cutest and most intimidating pic of all time:

  

• Darren Helm and Ben Meyers on the ice for warmups, but no Andrew Cogliano. Cogs is a warrior. This has to be bad to keep him out of the lineup again. My gut tells me it’s Helm tonight, but I’ll know in a few minutes if I’m wrong.

• I also expect Alexandar Georgiev to be a stud tonight with the help of a better group in front of him.

• No way Grubauer can be THAT good again, right? His rebound control was unreal Tuesday night. Gotta go hard to the net and force him to fumble the puck. We need the Grubi we saw vs. Vegas to come back!

• My biggest beef with the NHL this time of year: Game times. I know tonight’s puck drop isn’t at 9:30 for me (7:30 for most of you reading this). Just tell me when puck drop is! The other night, the game started at 10:20 p.m. which is 20 minutes after the listed game time. I know we’re all smart people, who understand the reality of it, but I still want to see it in print!

• Okay… I’m going to get ready for the game and will be back shortly for the in-game running blog. You can follow me here and Adrian and company on the in-game chat.

A Win Would…
… Make the series 1-1 headed back to Seattle.
… Be Awesome!

A Loss Would…
… Send Seattle home up 2-0 in their first-ever playoff series.
… Suuuuuuuuuuck.