Welcome to the War, Avs. There are not a lot of miracles in the Western Conference Final,

and you gotta go out and earn it. Abbs lose to the Vegas Golden Knights 4-2 in Game 1 of Round 3.

Look, I don't think the abs actually played that badly in this game, but Vegas was better

at the things that mattered. Through the first 30 minutes of this game, it was a pretty darn even hockey game. Both teams had some good chances. Neither team was finding the back

of the net, whether that was good plays defensively, or maybe just lack of execution. And

throughout this game, the story is lack of execution, at least on the Colorado Avalanche side. While at

times the scoreboard may have looked worse than the

game actually was, this game at the end of it came down to one play better from Vegas. And while

we talk about the individual mistakes that led to the goals against or the failures to score

for the avalanche, that ultimately is an entire team effort. If any one of those plays, a better play

gets made on, it's a completely

different hockey game. Unfortunately, that's not the world we live in, and that's why the

abs are down one game for the first time in these playoffs. Again, Colorado did some good

things. I really didn't mind how they played through the first half of this game other than

you have to score on your opportunities. And even when they fell behind in this game,

they just started to dominate puck possession more and create more opportunities for themselves.

It just didn't fall their way. And while, yes, the abs do need to do a better job of

executing offensively and finishing their plays, doing things like giving themselves a lead

would make their lives a lot easier. they also need to do a better job

of not making the big mistakes. Vegas is absolutely a team that capitalizes on those types of

opportunities, similar to a style of Dallas, and a thing that we know has given the Avs problem

a lot over the last handful of years. You have to find a way to just clean things up a little bit more. You're

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