from Damien Cox at the Toronto Star,

The Colorado Avalanche look unstoppable.

To that, the Vegas Golden Knights say, we’ll see about that.

Maybe.

The playoff matchup everyone outside the North Division has wanted to see — Toronto-Montreal was the one for Canadian fans — is close to happening.

It was difficult to make much sense of overall standings this season because teams didn’t play clubs outside their division. So while Colorado won the Presidents’ Trophy and Vegas finished second, it really only means they were by far the class of their division, which included three of the seven worst teams in the NHL, all from California.

But maybe that’s nitpicking. St. Louis and Minnesota sure seem to have discovered the strength of the Avs and Knights in the first round of the post-season. The undermanned Blues, further depleted when Robert Bortuzzo and Justin Faulk were eliminated by vicious and illegal Colorado head shots, were swept by the powerful Avalanche in a series that ended Sunday night.

The Wild, meanwhile, played Vegas very well during the regular season, but face elimination at the hands of the Golden Knights on Monday evening after four games.

So we could have Colorado-Vegas set to go by mid-week.

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