Avalanche will face Kings in Round 1, schedule released by NHL

The Colorado Avalanche finally know their opponent in Round 1 of the NHL playoffs.

It’ll be the Los Angeles Kings.

Both the Edmonton Oilers and Anaheim Ducks won on Thursday night, locking the Kings into the final wild card spot in the Western Conference. L.A. also lost to Calgary 3-1 to finish with 90 points.

With the Avalanche winning the Presidents’ Trophy and West (and earning the No. 1 seed), they’ll get Los Angeles who snagged the last berth in the postseason.

And the NHL has also released the schedule for the first-round series with the showdown beginning at Ball Arena on Sunday afternoon then continuing on Tuesday.

The series will shift back to Los Angeles for Games 3 and 4 then return to Denver for Game 5 if necessary. It would continue to shuffle back and forth until a possible (but seemingly unlikely) Game 7.

Here’s the full schedule for Avalanche-Kings:

The Avalanche played the Kings three times this year and beat them in every matchup.

They won 4-1 in the season opener in L.A. on Oct. 7. Colorado also topped the Kings 5-2 in December and 4-2 in March. The majority of the regular season games were in California, but if a majority is needed in this series, more contests will take place in the Mile High City.

Los Angeles is led by Adrian Kempe who had 36 goals and 37 assists. After that, no one even registered 50 points, although the Kings did acquire Artemi Panarin from the Rangers in February. His combined stats from both teams were worth 84 points. There’s no doubt Panarin is a threat.

And in net the Avalanche could see old friend Darcy Kuemper. He started 50 games for L.A. this season and posted a 19-14-15 record and 2.78 goals against average. Of course Kuemper was the primary goalie when Colorado won the Stanley Cup in 2022.

Regardless, many Avs fans are hoping for a quick Round 1 drubbing. Win it in four or five games and a nice break could be coming before taking on the very talented Stars or Wild. Colorado opened as -450 favorites to take the series over the Kings.

Here we go — it’s finally playoff hockey time.

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