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Presidents’ Trophy winning Colorado Avalanche begin their playoff run Monday against the St. Louis Blues

The Avalanche will have home ice advantage through the NHL playoffs, staring in the first round against the Blues

By Tom Hunter
NHL: APR 26 Avalanche at Blues

It’s been a wild couple of months for the NHL and it’s only going to get more exciting from here. Thursday night, the Colorado Avalanche won the Presidents’ Trophy as the top team in the NHL during the 2021 regular season.

Thanks to a five game winning streak to end the season, the Avalanche jumped over the Vegas Golden Knights in the standings in order to secure the top seed and home ice advantage throughout the playoffs.

With that top seed comes along a matchup with the St. Louis Blues.

The Blues finished the season on a bit of a hot streak themselves, suffering only one regulation loss in their final 12 games. Despite the hot finish, St. Louis still finished 19 points behind the Avalanche in the standings and are one of only two teams (the Montreal Canadiens being the other) to make the playoffs with a negative goal differential.

The Avalanche finished the season with a 5-3 record against the Blues this season, however, St. Louis has won the final two games in the head-to-head series back in April. The Avs also finished with a 60.43% expected goal share percentage against the Blues this season - a gap that is the highest of any first round matchup this year.

Thanks to their finish at the top of the Honda West Division, the Avalanche earned an extra day of rest before their first round series gets underway on Monday.

Here is a look at the complete schedule for the first round matchup between the Colorado Avalanche and the St. Louis Blues:

*all times are Mountain Daylight Time

Monday, May 17, 8 p.m.: Blues at Avalanche | NBCSN, SN1, TVAS

Wednesday, May 19, 8:30 p.m.: Blues at Avalanche | CNBC, SN360, TVAS

Friday, May 21, 7:30 p.m.: Avalanche at Blues | USA, SN360, TVAS

Sunday, May 23, TBD: Avalanche at Blues | TBD

*Tuesday, May 25, TBD: Blues at Avalanche | TBD

*Thursday, May 27, TBD: Avalanche at Blues | TBD

*Saturday, May 29, TBD: Blues at Avalanche | TBD

Here is the complete bracket for the 2021 Stanley Cup Playoffs: