I can't believe that my fellow Avalanche fans entered this year's Stanley Cup Playoffs scared and worried. Yes, I was a bit demoralized when the Winnipeg Jets, a team we would play in the playoffs, thrashed us 7-0 on our own ice, but I wasn't negative about it. I stood by what I said to a fellow Avs fan on Twitter:  "I don't give a f**k who we play, we'll f**k 'em up." 

The Jets swept the season series against the Avs:  "I don't give a f**k who we play, we'll f**k 'em up."

Our goalie, Alexandar Georgiev, was having problems in net:  "I don't give a f**k who we play, we'll f**k 'em up."

Avs entered the playoffs on a bit of a skid:  "I don't give a f**k who we play, we'll f**k 'em up."

Even when Georgiev was a mess in Game One, I said that we're going to enter Game 2 p**sed off.

Boy did we.

The Avalanche won four straight and all in dominant fashion! We scored 28 goals in the five game series! That's an average of 5.6 goals per game. Mind you, this was against a Jets team who had Connor Hellebuyck as their goalie. Hellebuyck won the William M. Jennings Trophy this year--that trophy goes to the goalie(s) who gave up the fewest goals in the NHL season. He is also a finalist for the Vezina trophy this year. Hellebuyck gave up 24 of the Avs' 28 goals, finishing the playoffs with a Goals Against Average over five! Even in the Avs' Game One loss, we scored six goals!

Here's the scary part:  most of the offense did NOT come from the Avalanche's big three (Nathan MacKinnon, Cale Makar, Mikko Rantanen). MacKinnon only had two goals, Makar had two goals, and Mikko didn't score a goal until Game Five--where he scored twice. So they only accounted for 6 goals, meaning the other 22 came from the rest of the group. SEVEN of them were scored by Valeri Nichushkin, and Artturi Lehkonen had five of them. That still leaves TEN goals from unexpected sources. Zach Parise, who's 39 and retiring after this season, scored twice. Holy moley!

And boy were Jets fans full of themselves during Game One. After the Jets scored their seventh of the game, their fans chanted "Pull your goalie!" They should have been told that a series doesn't end after one game. Oh, and the goalie that got pulled during a game was Hellebuyck, who was pulled after two periods in Game Four. Georgiev got his sh*t together. Same could not be said for Hellebuyck. Buyck should enjoy that Vezina he's going to win. That and a few bucks will get him a cup of coffee. Though, Hellebuyck wasn't the only one to blame, he definitely deserves at least 75% of it. And how did the Jets react to the fact that they would receive yet another playoff disappointment? They got dirty. Gabriel Vilardi, who was traded from LA to Winnipeg, delivered a dirty headshot to Makar. Yet he was never penalized. Refs still have some sort of vendetta against the Avs, I see. 

The Avalanche are off to Round 2 in dominant fashion a year after our attempt to repeat as Stanley Cup Champions saw us ousted in Round 1 by, of all teams, the Seattle Kraken. We will face off against either the Dallas Stars or the Vegas Golden Knights, and if we face Vegas, then the Avs will actually have home-ice advantage In Round 2. With that said, however, I hope Dallas crushes Vegas. I don't care if it costs us home ice in Round 2, I don't want Vegas to win sh*t but a kick in the a**. Speaking of a kick in the a**, that's what the Winnipeg Jets got, and then some, from the Avalanche. Another playoff disappointment from the Jets, who have still only won one playoff series since that magical run to the Western Conference Final in 2018.

Since 2021, I have written stories about eliminations from the Stanley Cup Playoffs, simply titled, "What Went Wrong." I write 14 of them every year:  8 for the first round, four for the 2nd round, and two for the Conference Finals. Here's my story on Vocal about the Jets' elimination:

https://vocal.media/unbalanced/what-went-wrong-the-buyck-stops-here

And here's my YouTube video where I talked about the Avs' series win, and the rest of the action: