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A team four wins away from a third consecutive Stanley Cup or a team who will have won seven elimination games in this playoff season?
The Avalanche continued its wait Friday as the Tampa Bay Lightning and New York Rangers headed back to Florida for Saturday’s Game 6 of the Eastern Conference Finals. The Lightning holds a 3-2 series lead.
Throughout their 14-game tour de force through the Western Conference, the Avalanche showed it could equal parts win a track meet (8-6 and 6-5 over Edmonton) and a rock fight (2-1 over Nashville, two 3-2 wins over St. Louis and 4-0 and 4-2 over the Oilers). This team is built to play against multiple styles.
So who should the Avs want to play? By category, here’s one guess on which team they should prefer:
Experience
Who should the Avalanche prefer: The Rangers … by a land-slide.
Tampa Bay, with players who have been with the Lightning during its entire championship run and veterans who have been added to the mix, is full of playoff veterans. At least seven players have at least 100 postseason games under their belts, led by winger Corey Perry’s 183, defenseman Victor Hedman’s 148 and winger Pat Maroon’s 137.
The Lightning have been through just about everything in the playoffs. It won a Game 7 at Toronto last month. It swept favored Florida in the second round. And it has won three consecutive games over the Rangers after falling behind 2-0.
The Rangers have only one player with at least 100 playoff games — defenseman Justin Braun (118). Winger Chris Kreider will appear in his 100th playoff game on Saturday.
Winger Andrew Cogliano is the only Avalanche player in triple digits (111 games) and his status for the final round is uncertain because of injury. Center Darren Helm has 96 playoff games.
Opposing goalie
Who should the Avalanche prefer: The Rangers’ Igor Shesterkin.
The 26-year-old Shesterkin is 10-8 in his first playoff season with a 2.62 goals against average and a .929 save percentage.
Lightning goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy, 27, has made 97 playoff appearances, posting a 60-34 record, 2.26 goals-against average and .924 save percentage. During the Lightning’s two title-winning seasons, he had a goals-against average of 1.90.
Top-six forwards
Who should the Avalanche prefer: The Lightning.
Tampa Bay’s top two forward lines are Steven Stamkos centering Palat and Nikita Kucherov, and Anthony Cirelli centering Brandon Hagel and Alex Killorn.
Kucherov is a terrific player (22 points in 16 games), but he is the only Lightning forward with at least 15 points in the playoffs.
The Rangers’ top two lines Thursday night were Mika Zibanejad centering Kreider and Frank Vatrano and Ryan Strome centering Artemi Panarin and Andrew Copp.
Zibanejab is the hub of the Rangers’ offensive wheel (24 points in 19 games) and is one of five players with at least 12 playoff points.
Shutdown defensemen
Who should the Avalanche prefer: The Rangers.
New York’s top four defensemen in ice time during the playoffs are ages 23 (Adam Fox), 22 (K’Andre Miller), 27 (Jacob Trouba) and 23 (Ryan Lindgren). But only Lindgren (plus-9) is better than a plus-1. Fox (23 points) is the Rangers’ version of Cale Makar.
The Lightning’s top two defensemen are Hedman, 31, and Ryan McDonagh, 32. They may not be the swiftest players, but they understand angles and how to use their stick to break up odd-man rushes.
Special teams
Who should the Avalanche prefer: The Lightning’s power play and the Rangers’ penalty kill.
Among the eight teams who advanced past the first round, the Rangers lead the NHL in power-play rate (31.5%) and Tampa Bay is fifth (23%).
Among the eight second-round teams, Tampa Bay is second in penalty kill (83.6%) and the Rangers are fifth (79.6%).
The Avalanche are second on the power play (31.1%) and sixth on the penalty kill (75.7%).
Rest
Who should the Avalanche prefer: The Rangers.
If the Rangers advance to the final round, they will have played the maximum amount of 21 games. If the Lightning close out the series Saturday, it will have played 17 games.
The Avalanche rolled through the Western Conference in only 14 games (12-2 record). Among the Stanley Cup winners since 2000, that total is tied for the fewest games through three rounds with Los Angeles (2012).
Footnotes. If Tampa Bay wins Saturday, the Avalanche will host Game 1 on Wednesday. If the Rangers force a Game 7, the Finals will start on Saturday, June 18. … The Avalanche had a full-squad practice Friday morning and the only missing players were defenseman Josh Manson, center Nazem Kadri and winger Andrew Cogliano. Kadri and Cogliano sustained hand-area injuries in the Edmonton series. … During 5-on-5 work, the second line was J.T. Compher centering Mikko Rantanen and Andre Burakovsky and the third line was Alex Newhook centering Arrturi Lehkonen and Logan O’Connor.
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