What's at Stake Tomorrow

For Avs fans, tomorrow is a huge hockey day. The Avs play the Blues starting at 1:00. The Canucks play the Kings starting at 2:00. If the Avs win and the Canucks lose, the Avs will win the Northwest. If the Avs lose or tie or if the Canucks tie or win, the Avs will stay in 4th place in the West and the Blues will stay in town for the first two games of the first round of the playoffs. If the Avs can pull off the win and the Canucks blow it, then St. Louis will head to Vancouver, and the Mighty Ducks will come to Denver. The Ducks have beaten the Avs in three out of four games already this year.

Even more exciting than the team standings are the individual races for goal scoring and total points, and again, that all comes down to the Avs and the Canucks. Forsberg has the assists title wrapped up already with 75. Add in 28 goals and he is in 2nd place with 103 points behind the Canucks' Naslund who has 104 points in the race for the Art Ross Trophy. Naslund has a lot of impetus to add to his point total as he is currently in second place with 48 goals to the Av's Hejduk who has 49 goals in the competition for the Maurice Richard Trophy. Additionally, both players would love to have 50 goal seasons. With 46 goals and in third place, the Canucks' Bertuzzi isn't out of the race either. It's not hard to imagine Naslund setting up Bertuzzi four times and having one take the Richard and the other the Ross. On top of all of that, Naslund and Forsberg are the two most talked about contenders for the Hart Memorial Trophy presented to the league's most valuable player. Expect it to go to whoever's team wins the Northwest division.

The Avs face a tougher Blues team compared to the Canucks - Kings matchup. Naslund and Bertuzzi will probably still have a period and a half or more to play when the Avs finish. Naslund and Bertuzzi will thus have the advantage of knowing what Forsberg and Hejduk were able to accomplish. Man! Tomorrow is going to be some exciting hockey. Unfortunately, I feel like I need to be excited now because I don't think Avs can get by either Dallas or Detroit to get to the Western conference finals. Out in the East, I like the Senators' offense, but I really like Brodeur's defense. He makes the Devils awfully tough to beat over a seven game series.

Hooray for hockey!

Jonathan 4/05/2003 01:40:00 PM