5 Things The Avs Need To Do To Be Successful in Game 5

5. Ryan Wilson needs to bring it

Wilson needs to play like the Ryan Wilson of old. He needs to be the solid, defensively responsible, and most of all heavy hitting. Wilson needs to punish the top Wild scorers and make them work hard for space on the ice. Now, this doesn’t mean he needs to seriously injure one of the Wild’s top players, but tire them out.

4. Level The Playing Field

The Avs were severely outplayed in every possible way in game 3. The Wild crowd was loud and the home team fed off the energy. If it wasn’t for Varlamov the game could have been 6 or 7-0. Imagine if Berra was in net all game. Colorado was outhustled, out shot, out chanced, and if they want an ice cubes chance down under to win game 4 then they need to just play better all around. Pucks to the net, hard in the corners, smart passes, puck possession. Yes it sounds like a post game interview with Jonathan Toews, but that’s what the Avs need to do to be successful.

3. MacKinnon

Nathan MacKinnon was insufferable in game 3. Every time he got the puck he tried to do something cute, make a big play, or snipe it from a distance. We’re not saying the success of game 2 is going to his head, but he needs to step back from the spotlight and start playing smart hockey again. MacKinnon messed up and gave up the puck twice on a 3^rd period powerplay opportunity, and kept getting stick-checked when he tried to carry the puck into the zone when he could have easily passed it or dumped it on. He had his worst game in the NHL on Monday night; not because the Wild defense did an amazing job shutting him and the top line down, but because he shut himself down trying to make the highlight reel again. Hopefully Roy had a sit down with him and told him to keep it simple. The Wild defense are not going to be as easy to pay around as they were in game 2, and he needs to adjust.

2. Secondary scoring

O’Reilly, Parenteau, McGinn, and the rest of the Avs forwards have a combined 4 points. The 2^nd line itself has been bad, and Parenteau has been useless. If the top line is going to continue to try and be cute, then everyone else is going to need to step up. In all honesty, the Avs are the ones who should be down in this series.

1. Solve Kuemper/ Get better shots

The Avs weren’t stoned cold by Kuemper. They just took horrible shots and generated 0 chances. How many times did you see the Avs float a dopey shot in from the circles? Too many. Out of their 22 shots, how many actually had a good chance of going in? Scoring chances favoured the Wild almost 10 fold, and if the Avs can get some good shots on Kuemper, they can score some goals.