#WhyNotUs

With a record of 52-21-7, the Avalanche have tied their franchise record for wins in a season with two games to go.

(Caveat: The franchise record was set in 2000-2001 with a record of 52-16-10-4. The last two categories being ties and overtime losses. One way to look at it is that team with today's rules would have had 10 chances to go to shootouts and win about 5 more. The other way to look at it is that this year's team had 5 wins off shootouts. Regardless it's been a good season.)

Despite being totally invested and following on twitter or live streams for every game that I can, I haven't been blogging as much about them. One of those reasons is, ironically, that they've had a playoff spot sewn up basically since October.

On November 7th I posted the playoff picture here. (Just ignore all that Chiefs in first place stuff).

Back then, the Avs were in first, Blues 2nd, Blackhawks 3rd. And after all those games, that's where we are now.

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The entire season it looked like the Avs would be facing the Blackhawks in round 1, it was just a matter of who would have home ice. I was fine with this. The Avs are 4-1 vs Chicago this year.

As long as they didn't have to play St. Louis, I'm golden. Colorado is 1-3 vs St. Louis this year.

But if they got the #1 seed they could face Dallas (4-1 against them) or Minnesota (4-1 against them too).

What would be ideal...if the Avs could get the #1 seed, knock off Dallas or Minnesota...meanwhile Chicago beats St. Louis, setting up a Colorado-Chicago semifinals.

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The only sour note is that my favorite player, Matt Duchene, got injured. On March 31, he was slated to be out 3-4 weeks. Since then though, Colorado has been on a tear, winning game after game. So hopefully they can stay alive until he rejoins them.

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Small tidbit about this year's team: Our most clutch player has been...defenseman Tyson Barrie. The same Barrie that was often sent to the AHL under head coach Sacco. He has 5 GWG including last night including 3 in OT.

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So now there's 2 games left. The Avs have clinched the 1st or 2nd seed in the division, meaning they've secured home ice. They're tied with the Blues in points but own the tiebreaker (ROW).

Since it's a back to back, the Avs are starting in goal...Reto Berra. He was acquired a month or two ago and has only played one game, a loss. With a W and a Blues regulation loss, the Avs could clinch the division.

Why not us?