After dominant Game 4, has Avalanche finally unlocked how to beat Stars?

DALLAS It would be hard not to compare and contrast the current state of the Colorado Avalanche to what the organization faced after Tournament against the Dallas Stars a season ago For all intents and purposes the - season or at the very least Colorado s championship aspirations ended the day of Meeting against the Stars Valeri Nichushkin was suspended for at least six months just hours before puck drop Devon Toews was sick and a late scratch The Stars easily handled a shook Avs organization to take a commanding - series lead before winning in six games Fast forward almost a year and Encounter against the Stars was one of the best games Colorado has played this season After three games where the margins were razor thin the Avalanche dominated Competition in every fashion and this series is now - with Championship on Monday night at American Airlines Center Regardless of who wins Battle the Avs are in so much better shape both physically and emotionally to try and knock the Stars out of the postseason for the first time in three times Different emotionally for sure Avs forward Logan O Connor stated We are really happy with how Saturday s meeting went We were firing on all cylinders Whereas last year things were a little discombobulated throughout After a season full of injuries and athlete availability issues the Avs entered Monday night as the healthier club in this series Ross Colton remained out with an undisclosed injury but Gabe Landeskog s comeback and remarkable level of play after days away widened the gap with Dallas on the strength front as Miro Heiskanen and Jason Robertson continued to be absent We re also just a different organization Toews disclosed Obviously missing that competition hurt for me and not having Val was tough for the band as well Just having pretty much a full roster right now is different and we feel like we re getting better as the series goes on Further to Toews point Avs coach Jared Bednar was quite positive about his association s effort in Challenge a - overtime loss that left Colorado in a - series hole That performance was better than Tournament which was also an overtime loss Then came Battle which was the best offensive performance by any unit in the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs When the Avs play like that particularly against an elite opponent like the Stars it s clear winning the Stanley Cup is the ceiling for this group Everyone was feeling good everyone had jump and we were all on the same page working towards the same direction Manson stated of Championship I think we can use that to see what really works these are the tangible effects of when everybody sees that it wasn t anything special It s like we should just do what we need to do now not what we think we need to do if that makes sense To borrow an analogy from another sport Colorado s fastball is arguably the best in the NHL It should be given the remodeled Avs came into Monday night with a million roster and a healthy impactful Landeskog But the Stars have been the best group in contemporary years at denying the Avs ability to play at their best to reach back and find the best fastball out there The Avs located what worked against the Winnipeg last year and were relentless in bulldozing their way past the Jets Expecting the same against the Stars might be a stretch but it s accomplishable the Avs have detected what can help them decisively get past their latest playoff nemesis You ve got to learn from what you ve been doing throughout the class of the series Bednar noted There s things that we ve liked There s things that we want to improve upon I think there s particular things that we did in that contest that are repeatable I m not going to go into specifics but you have to learn and just adapt and kind of take what the other organization gives you A lot of what we did in that competition and why we had success is because we were really highly competitive and the attention to detail within our encounter in almost all areas of our contest was good So it s got to continue