Avs coach Patrick Roy reminded us that Avs goalie coach Francois Allaire was also Bryzgalov's goalie coach in Anaheim, so "we have a lot of info on him."
Wild fans will probably get an appreciation in this series about just how good Nathan MacKinnon will be, is already and how lightning fast he is.
Obviously, the Wild will want Ryan Suter out against MacKinnon, but I think Yeo will also feel very comfortable with his two most mobile defensemen, Jonas Brodin and Marco Scandella, out there against him, too. I asked Yeo if the Wild may go with a coaching strategy of yesteryear and assign a player also to shadown MacKinnon (although the only one probably capable is speedy Erik Haula), but Yeo indicated it'll be a five-man unit thing.
"He's a very dynamic player," Yeo said. "They have a number of them. We have to be careful that we're not just keying on one guy, but this is a guy that you have to be incredibly impressed with his rookie season. His speed, the way he's able to generate it so quickly – it doesn't take much, there's a loose puck and he's jumping on it and his first couple strides are so explosive that you have to limit those opportunities. Once he does build that speed, then you have to make sure you're containing it. We do feel good about the mobility of our defensive group. That'll be a good challenge for them as far as them testing us with the one-on-one play."
MacKinnon was a playoff star in juniors, and he's ultra-confident. I'll write more about him later in the series. I gathered a lot of yarn on him today. I also chatted with Bloomington's Erik Johnson about his transformation into a No. 1 defenseman, and I'll write him later in the series.
On Semyon Varlamov, who won 41 games and will be a Vezina finalist, Yeo said, "We've done a scouting report. We've watched a lot of video. This is a great goalie. He's very athletic, great side-to-side. The one thing I believe with any great goalie is the quicker you shoot the puck, the better off you are. He does a very good job of coming out and closing angles and making himself big in the net. The quicker you get the puck off your stick, the more net there is to shoot. We have to have a strong focus of making sure we're putting a lot of traffic in front of him, making it difficult for him to come out and be aggressive on those shots."
