The Colorado Avalanche had the luxury of a fully healthy team at their disposal for Game 1 against the San Jose Sharks. Unfortunately, a slower but bigger Sharks team was able to capitalize on mistakes well enough to win the first game 5-2 even though Colorado went up early.
That doesn’t mean the Avs should scrap everything from Game 1. Indeed, they may choose to ice the exact same squad for Game 2. However, throughout the year, they sometimes favored a 7-11 system — seven defensemen and 11 forwards. With as stacked as the Avalanche’s defensive corps is right now, that may well be an attractive option for the team.