The Los Angeles Kings were a stingy defensive team. The Minnesota Wild pushed the pace. Vegas might be a bit of a hybrid between those two teams.

Colorado’s experience against those first two playoff opponents could come in handy.

“I would venture to say that Vegas is a little mix of both of our last opponents,” Avalanche coach Jared Bednar said on Sunday.

There’s evidence to back that up.

During the regular season, the Vegas Golden Knights finished second in the NHL in expected goals-against according to Natural Stat Trick. The reason why they didn’t finish with more points than they did after the regular season? It’s pretty simple.

Goaltending.

During the regular season, only one team, the Edmonton Oilers, had a worse save percentage at 5-on-5 than the Golden Knights. Adin Hill, who led Vegas to a Stanley Cup in 2023, regressed and Carter Hart struggled to find consistency until late. The 27-year-old Hart has since found that consistency, which has helped the Golden Knights through two rounds. This team can defend and will make life difficult for the Avalanche.

But they can also score. Jack Eichel is a top 10, possibly top 5 center in the NHL and could very easily be the best center the Avalanche face this postseason, even if they do advance to the Stanley Cup Final. Mitch Marner has found another level this postseason, leading the NHL with 18 points. Both those forwards play in all situations, so the Avalanche will not only have to worry about breaking through offensively, but they’ll also have to worry about defending the elite talent the Golden Knights can put on the ice.

“They’re a stingy, stingy defensive team. Have been all year. Analytics near the top of the league in the defending areas,” Bednar said. “They’ve got the firepower and some dangerous guys and really good special teams. The first two rounds should prepare us well for Vegas because we’re going to see a little bit of both the teams that we just faced.”

Colorado has shown this postseason that they can play any style of hockey needed to win. The series with Los Angeles was not full of scoring chances. It was a grind-it-out series for both teams and while the Avalanche tried to create offensively, there just wasn’t much room out there. Instead, they showed they could defend just as well and take advantage of the few opportunities they were given.

Then you get to the Minnesota series and it’s a completely different style. There might have been more scoring chances in the 9-6 shootout at Ball Arena than there were in all four games Colorado played against the Kings. Almost immediately, Colorado was able to flip the switch and have its depth and high-powered offense take over when needed, with 16 different skaters scoring goals in the five games against the Wild.

There have been plenty of reasons to be impressed with Colorado’s playoff run thus far. It’s only going to get more difficult from this point on, but one thing has stood out to Bednar.

“Mental toughness,” he said. “Just not being too high or too low, wins, losses, periods. Stints in games where you’re really good or not really good, they’re always looking to try to improve the consistency of our team.”

Notable

• Sam Malinski skated in a regular jersey at practice, and Bednar said he’s trending toward being available on Wednesday. Josh Manson also returned to practice. There was still no Cale Makar, Brent Burns, or Artturi Lehkonen, but Bednar did provide a bit of hope after practice that all could play when the series against Vegas starts. “I think everyone’s going to be available, but we’ll see,” he said.
• Alex Gagne, who has not played an NHL game before, joined the Avalanche for practice. The 23-year-old defenseman signed as a free agent with the Avalanche last year. Colorado is prepping the 6-foot-5, 225-pound defenseman in case they need him against Vegas. “Gagne has played excellent in his first year with the Eagles, and he’s a big, strong guy. We saw a big bottom 6 in Minny, we’re going to see a big bottom 6 out of Vegas,” Bednar said.
• The Avalanche will take Monday off before practicing again on Tuesday.