Game Seven Preview: For all the marbles

Two of the best (and worst) words in sports: Game Seven.

The Colorado Avalanche play in their first game seven since 2020 looking to knock off the Seattle Kraken once and for all. What has been a tight series and the Avs playing from behind, it all comes down to this.

The Avs haven’t hosted a game seven since 2014 against the Minnesota Wild. Of course, the end result is one which shouldn’t be discussed.

Colorado Avalanche

The Avs came out to play with their backs to the wall in game six and played like they didn’t want to be eliminated. This meant they came out with a 4-1 win and forced game seven tonight.

It was the best they’d played all series long. The hope is they’ll keep up the same performance tonight again in an elimination game for both sides.

The stars continued to perform, with Mikko Rantanen and Nathan MacKinnon leading the way. If they keep it up, the Avs will have a good shot. If they get help from the bottom six and bottom pairings of defense, it will really come in handy and give them an excellent shot to push them through to the second round for the fifth year in a row.

Projected Lines

Artturi Lehkonen (62) - Nathan MacKinnon (29) - Mikko Rantanen (96)
Evan Rodrigues (9) - Lars Eller (20) - J.T. Compher (37)
Matt Nieto (83) - Alex Newhook (18) - Denis Malgin (81)
Ben Meyers (59) - Kurtis MacDermid (56) - Logan O’Connor (25)

Devon Toews (7) - Cale Makar (8)
Jack Johnson (3) - Bowen Byram (4)
Sam Girard (49) - Erik Johnson (6)

Seattle Kraken

Seattle has arguably been the better team across the entire series across these seven games. Only being down once in the series, having the series lead multiple times, and having now two chances to close out the Avs is an excellent start to the postseason history for the Kraken.

They are lucky to have Jordan Eberle in their team after he threw a hit which fractured the neck of Andrew Cogliano. There was no hearing or suspension, even a fine for the forward. Cogliano is out indefinitely because of his actions.

He’ll look to help the Kraken win its first-ever series in franchise history. With the star power of Matty Beniers along with depth, it's a real possibility. It’s just a matter of if they can pull it off at the end of the day.

Projected Lines

Jaden Schwartz (17) - Matty Beniers (10) - Jordan Eberle (7)
Tye Karte (52) - Alexander Wennberg (21) - Morgan Geekie (67)
Eeli Tolvanen (20) - Yanni Gourde (37) - Oliver Bjorkstrand (22)
Brandon Tanev (13) - Ryan Donato (9) - Daniel Sprong (91)

Vince Dunn (29) - Adam Larsson (6)
Jamie Oleksiak (24) - William Borgen (3)
Carson Soucy (28) - Justin Schultz (4)

Goaltenders

Alexandar Georgiev versus Philipp Grubuaer. Need I say more other than both will need to be on their A-game to push their team through to the next round?