Playoff seeding is still up in the air as the Colorado Avalanche close out the regular season on Thursday against the Edmonton Oilers.
Colorado will face the Winnipeg Jets in the first round of the 2024 Stanley Cup Playoffs. The playoffs begin Saturday, April 20.
The fate of home-ice advantage is in the hands of Winnipeg, sitting one point above Colorado in the Central Division.
The Jets hold the tiebreaker over the Avs, winning all three games against Colorado this season by a combined 17-4 score. The Jets need to lose in their final two games and the Avs must win in their season finale for Colorado to clinch home-ice.
Each series is played in a 2-2-1-1-1 format meaning the team with the better record plays Games 1, 2, 5 and 7 at its home arena.
The two teams have never played each other in the playoffs.
It’ll be a matchup between one of the league’s best offenses against one of the league’s stingiest defenses. The Avalanche are No. 1 in the NHL in goals per game (3.67). They are led by center Nathan MacKinnon who has an NHL career-high 138 points (51 goals, 87 assists) headed into their final regular season faceoff against Edmonton.
Colorado has won the Stanley Cup three times, the last coming in 2022. Winnipeg has never won or been to the Stanley Cup Final.
The first round of the playoffs will begin April 20. Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Finals is tentatively scheduled for June 3 and the postseason is expected to conclude no later than June 24.
Here are five local sports bars to keep in mind throughout the Avalanche playoff run:
DNVR Sports Bar
Location: 2239 E. Colfax Ave.
Sobo 151 Bar & Grill
Location: 151 S. Broadway
Tom’s Watch Bar
Location: 1601 19th St.
Stoney’s Uptown Joint
Location: 1035 E. 17th Ave.
Campus Lounge
Location: 701 S. University Blvd.
