The Colorado Avalanche have moved on to the second round of the Stanley Cup playoffs,

effectively sweeping the LA Kings for a greater matchup ahead.

They made it through only to face the Minnesota Wild, very dynamic, very offensively punching

team.

Super excited to talk about this and dig into this series.

We've talked a lot about the Colorado

Avalanchee here. Excited to dig in behind enemy lines. Here to do that. I have Jess Myers of the St. Paul

Pioneer Press. Jess, thank you so much for hopping on to talk about. I mean, I'm so excited to talk

about this series. Hey, I'm happy to be here and great to be in Denver. Two trips to

Dallas was plenty, happy to cancel that fight for Game 7. And this is almost uncharted territory

for the Minnesota while. They haven't been to the second round in 11 years. So some real

excitement in Minnesota. It's crazy what, well, how hyped people can get, you know, to get a little taste of victory for a while.

So talk to me a little bit about that.

I mean, in the locker room, I mean, everybody saw those pressers and scrums and say, like, they just seemed so pumped to move on.

They're like, I don't care if it's Colorado we're facing, which everybody's scared of Colorado. But it just seemed like the wild locker room was so excited to just be moving on. Well, we don't have time to talk about all the ramifications of the way the playoffs are structured. And, you know, the top three teams more from Calvin. You know, two of them have to play each other in round one. And then, you know, two of them have to play each other in round two. You know, that's a whole other topic. And every time you bring that up, right, every time you bring that up with members of the wild or frankly, any team, it's like, hey, you're going to have to beat three good teams to win the Stanley Cup anyway, you know, whatever it is or four good teams. You know, might as well play them now, all of that.

But that Dallas series was a lot of fun.

And, you know, not just because Minnesota won it, but, you know, you talk about some

crazy games, a double overtime, a single overtime, one blowout, you know, a couple

close games.

But there was such a sense of just relief and happiness when they got an empty net goal, the seal game six. And it's like,

oh my goodness, we're moving on. And here was my favorite part about it. 11 years ago,

the last time they had done this, 2015, they beat St. Louis in the first round

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