COLORADO AVALANCHE VS. MIGHTY DUCKS of ANAHEIM Special Teams Avs’ Best Bet by ADRIAN DATER | the DENVER POST
8D The Denver Post g Friday, May 5, 2006 AVALANCHE COLORADO AVALANCHE VS. MIGHTY DUCKS OF ANAHEIM Special teams Avs’ best bet BY ADRIAN DATER | THE DENVER POST The Avalanche gets the edge in almost every category here, so it’ll be a blowout, right? Wrong. The Ducks showed they are a formidable team in knocking off Northwest Division champion Calgary in the first round. They also have the home-ice advantage in the series. But we saw how much home ice was worth to Western teams in the first round — zip. The Avs look a little deeper and a little more talented overall than the Mighty Ducks. It’ll be a close series, but the bet here is the Avs will find a way to win again. PREDICTION: AVALANCHE IN SIX GAMES THE AVS ADVANTAGE OFFENSE THE DUCKS Who would have believed the Avalanche of and balanced Mighty Ducks, Colorado needs 2006 would be a more potent offensive team another good series from usual suspects Joe than the one of 2003-04 that included Peter Sakic, Milan Hejduk and — maybe even more Forsberg, Paul Kariya and Teemu Selanne? than in the first round — Alex Tanguay. Alex Tanguay The new NHL rules are partly responsible The Ducks are led by, surprise, surprise: Jeff Vinnick for that, but these Avs are a deeper, more Selanne. The friendly Finn was awful for the Getty Images balanced offensive team than that so-called Avs in his one season here, but surgery to his “superstar” team. The addition of Steve knee helped him regain his speed.
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