As crude as it may seem, coming from a Minnesota fan toward a group of Colorado fans in the midday sun at the patio of Brooklyn’s in Denver, but since the matchup was set with a 4-3 Colorado win, it could be considered the opening volley in what may have the potential to be a war.

Many people are attempting to draw similarities between this series and the 2003 playoffs, when the upstart over-achieving Wild squad ended not just the Avs’ playoff run, but also Patrick Roy. The roles are reversed; Minnesota just clinched their first Division Title while Colorado had to work to get in and dealt with injuries to key guys all year long. Minnesota dominated the regular season series, but since the “second season” has started you can throw that out the window. Both teams match up very well; both play a skating game, and have great offensive firepower. Just from talking to the Avs fans who were nice enough to strike up conversations over Jameson Whiskey and Coors Light at Brooklyns, many were glad that this was the matchup to be.

Nick Schultz’ appendectomy is a huge blow; especially for a blueline core in which depth could become a pressing issue. Kurtis Foster went down a short time ago, and now Nick Schultz is out for at least the first round. Suddenly aging guys like Sean Hill and Keith Carney will be asked to step up their minutes; Petteri Nummelin and his ineffective pokecheck will now see time every game. Schultz was going to be the shutdown guy; he would be on the ice everytime Sakic, Stastny, Forsberg, etc. hopped the boards. Now to me, that task has to go to Kim Johnsson and Martin Skoula; these two guys, as a pairing, have played very very good over the past few months, and since they are minute munchers, they will be able to handle an extended workload. Skoula, for one, plays better when he has a huge workload, and Johnsson is no stranger to seeing 30 minutes a game. The skating style will work well for Nummelin; but the real question marks are Carney and Hill. The two veterans, no strangers to playoff hockey, have been bad this year. Carney has been disappointing this year, and Sean Hill, when he has gotten into the lineup, is prone to running around for the big hit, which often leads to goals against or penalties. If Hill can tone it down, he should be able to step into a bigger role. As for Brent Burns, he has to play his game; maybe being paired with Carney can increase his effectiveness.

I like how the forwards match up; Adrian Dater of the Denver Post mentioned that the checking line of Stephane Veilleux, Mikko Koivu, and Branko Radivojevic would be the difference; these guys will have to step it up even more so Schultz out; Colorado’s big guns will see plenty of these guys. With that being said, Dater talked about how the Avs lack a true checking line, one that will be responsible for containing guys like Gaborik and Rolston. Ryan Smyth is not a checking winger. With the dustup between Ian Laperriere and Gaborik Sunday, the tone was set; the star players are going to be receiving physical attention. The Avs didn’t like how the Wild played Peter Forsberg last week, and sent the message that Marian Gaborik and Co. would be getting played the same way. With this, I don’t think you’ll see all three of “The GOONies” in the lineup; Todd Fedoruk is a given. I think you have to go with Chris Simon in this series; don’t get me wrong, we love our Derek Boogaard, but he can’t play. Plain and simple- Simon has the experience and the ability to play to boot, and along with James Sheppard and Mark Parrish they could be an effective 4th line, a team that can get it down low and cycle the hell out of the puck; that has to be the sole purpose for this line. All three are strong along the wall, and can do what they do best to keep the play in the Avs zone, and maybe create a scoring chance or draw a penalty or two.

I really like how Niklas Backstrom is playing coming into this series; he seems like he’s peaking at the right time, and is beginning to look an awful lot like he did last year and into the playoffs, where he even kept us in a few games. He has to be on his game; on paper the defense looks like it took a hit because of the loss of Schultz. However, Colorado has some very good firepower, so its imperative that the D and Backstrom are on the same wavelength.

Granted I speak from a Minnesota perspective, but with Colorado you have experience, but for the most part the key guys are aged; this isn’t 2001 anymore. But with that comes with a ton of playoff experience, which will come in handy when alot of their roster has little to no playoff seasoning, which you could make the argument that Minnesota is similar in that aspect; but I think that we (despite no Schultz) are just the better team, and aside from guys like Scott Hannan and Adam Foote that Colorado will have a hard time shutting down our top lines.

I got Minnesota in 5.