Dallas vs Colorado Prediction 16 May 2024

🔊Valeri Nichushkin has repeated his trick again, can Colorado now cope with the opponent? Initially, this series seemed obvious: Colorado's power against a strong Dallas. Few gave the "Texans" a chance to win the series, but first, they proved they could win, and then the "Avalanche" started to dismantle themselves. Now, the outcome of this series seems absolutely clear, but entirely different. Such things happen in the NHL.

Dallas is making history without exaggeration. To battle such a strong opponent, the team chose a tactic of starting pressure. The "Texans" force the events from the first minutes and deliberately make a huge number of shots. They won the first periods of all matches in this series, moreover, they made more shots on goal in the first two periods of all series matches. After such a start, the team invariably closes down, "dries" the game, tries to maintain the needed score, and acts in fast counterattacks. And this tactic works throughout the series.

Colorado once again, as a year ago, took a painful blow from its own, system-forming player. And from the same one. Valeri Nichushkin failed medical tests and is suspended from participating in NHL matches for six months. And this is a huge problem for Colorado. Nichushkin was not just a first-line player; he was the main driving force of this team. His pressure in front of the net created many moments. This is an irreplaceable loss.

Projected Lineups
Colorado: Georgiev – Toews, Makar – Lehkonen, MacKinnon, Rantanen

Dallas: Oettinger – Heiskanen, Harley – Robertson, Hintz, Pavelski

No new injuries as a result of the four series matches. Landeskog and O’Connor will not play for Colorado, but they have not played in this playoff. Hakanpaa will not play for Dallas, who has not played in this Stanley Cup playoff yet. But most importantly, the disqualification of Valeri Nichushkin broke up Colorado's first line and led to a change in all attacking lines.

Goalies
Alexander Georgiev (89.5%, 2.95 GAA) clearly cannot handle the pressure of elimination games. The team's coach is not considering a change of the main goalie, so the goalie needs to urgently improve his statistics, otherwise, this match could be his last.

Dallas’ goalie Jake Oettinger (91.9%, 2.09 GAA), on the contrary, is playing absolutely stunningly, does not make gross mistakes, and gives his team's field players the necessary confidence.

Editorial Prediction
Dallas has started all matches in this series with fast and active hockey without a neutral zone. Colorado is a step from the abyss and has lost one of its main forwards. This team does not know how and will not sit back in defense. Likely, the game will take an open character from the first minutes and therefore, in our opinion, more than 6 pucks will be scored in this match.

📊Statistics are everything to us! And we are ready to provide them:

• officially, the clubs have played in 55;

• today's ice hosts have 25;

• the guests have – 30;

• the hosts struck the opponent's goal 170 times;

• the guests – 182 times.