Solid period of work by the Blues and a little puck luck. I'll take it. Now go do it again.

I can't believe the odds on Colorado winning this series. They were -280 on Fan Duel this afternoon. Even Moneypuck has them at over 70% favorites (not sure if that's been updated since the game began). This Avs team, albeit improved from last season, lost 4 straight to a mediocre Vegas team. This Blues team is far superior in just about every facet of the game. If the odds were 50/50 I'd take the Avs. But, this series is so primed for a massive upset. And the current odds would make a STL win in the series a massive upset.

Of course, Val scores right as I'm about to post.

COL was +280 to win the series??? That cant be right

Kadri - Leafs Playoff Legend!

Binnington - has tinnitus (ringing in his ears from all the pipes the AVS doinkin')!

COL fans are so lucky, my god the Avs are fun to watch

Crap period by the Blues, so sloppy with the puck. As usual, much of the damage can be traced back to sloppy puck play. When they eliminate these mistakes, they can run their system and it's a whole other ball game. Time for a strong 3rd, boys.

Late predictions:

Tampa in 6
Canes in 5
Flames in 6 (even though I want Oilers in 6)
Avs in 7

Apparently the Avs are so great they don't need to get away with glaringly obvious penalties...

Lol what? The oilers was probably the biggest favourites to win their series next to Colorado, Calgary and Florida.

Why not? Isn't that basically the same as 70%. Odds don't represent reality. They represent what bettors are betting on.

Colorado is - to win the series, not +.

+280 for COL to win means that COL is the underdog. Every single betting site has COL as the favourite so if you get COL at + odds that means you can use the arbitrage betting strategy to make guaranteed money. It has to be an error

Koharski is so full of ****, a player does not have to be responsible for watching guys falling down behind him when his stick swings around at thigh level. Cmon.

"There is no low sticking penalty on the books."

Yeah, no duh, and yet you imagine there is somehow.

Meanwhile, it would be great if Thomas and Buch finally show up.

Would have been nice to steal that one for Binnington. The Blues almost never play crisply after being off for several days, but there's about two lines of forwards that need to pick their ****ing socks up. Now.

OT shots 13-0 for Avs.

Blues got some serious grinding to do to get at least one win on this series.

I wouldn't be massively surprised if Avs won the cup with 16-0 record at this rate.

-280. That was probably clear in the context.

-280. That was probably clear from the context of my post. I will correct the typo.

Heh. Reel it in, buddy. The Blues always play sloppy after several days off (and Colorado is probably the worst place to play after said layoff), and they usually play much better the next game after. They are very much a rhythm team, and sweet Moses there was no rhythm at all last night. I'm not worried just yet, we'll see how the Avs fare when the Blues are actually playing their normal game. Last night, they couldn't even pick up loose pucks or receive passes. It was sad... but it was one game. And even with all their dominance, the Avs still required OT just to edge out the W. This series is far from over.

Fwiw COL had even more days off and looked much more ready for this. Imo that's concerning.

For the sake of my bracket I hope you're right. I had Blues winning this one. But if the G1 showed what's this series going to be like, this will be a short ride for Avs.

1- I have no idea how Colorado reacts rest vs. rust, but I suspect after last night they're a happy rested team. I'm not concerned with them anyway. The Blues are 100% a rhythm team and unsurprisingly one that struggles to find rhythm after 5-6 days off. They've been this way for eons. And unlike Colorado, they can't just put it on a couple of sticks and have those guys skate circles until they have a shot. The Blues need to stay in their game and execute it. Last night was a perfect demonstration of how badly they are off kilter the first game back after several days off. In both sticking to the plan as a unit and executing.

2- Well, one could look it at two ways. One could say, oh the Blues were lucky to get it to OT because they were dominated. One could also say the Avs got lucky not to let the W slip away because the Blues played horrible after the 1st period and the Avs still needed a screened flipper OT goal to beat them. I kinda doubt the Blues play that disjointed every game. It makes perfect sense they came out flat in game 1. It also makes perfect sense they play a lot better in game 2.

blues game was fun. aside from binnington standing on his head the game was pretty one sided for the avs.

calling it now. binnington for nylander or leafs get husso in free agency

Optional morning skate..McDavid, RNH, Yamamoto, Puljujarvi, Kassian, McLeod, Archibald, Barrie, Bouchard and Smith the regulars on ice.Foegele, Shore, Brassard, Koskinen and the recently recalled Black Aces also skating. #Oilers

— Jason Gregor (@JasonGregor) May 18, 2022

still no Drai

I know I'm late, but still: condolences to @EsoYeezus69 and @justaBoss on the Stars. Oettinger was freaking UNREAL. If there's one serious bright spot for the Stars going into next year, it's that they seem to finally have a true No. 1 G again.

The Blues don't need Nylander. Make it a 3-way for an LD and we may talk.