2022 Stanley Cup playoffs - Can Colorado Avalanche-Edmonton Oilers Western Conference finals get even wilder?

DENVER — The NHL Western Conference finals were billed as two superstar-laden, high-octane offensive powerhouses going head-to-head for a chance to play for Lord Stanley's Cup.

The Colorado Avalanche and Edmonton Oilers already managed to surpass even those lofty expectations.

In Game 1 of their best-of-seven series Tuesday, the Oilers and Avalanche threw it back to the NHL's roaring, scoring 1980s heyday in a back-and-forth affair in which literally no lead was safe. A combined 14 goals and 84 shots added up to an 8-6 win for Colorado, and admittedly left everyone a little stunned.

«We score a goal, then we give up a goal on the next shift,» Oilers coach Jay Woodcroft recounted after Game 1. «They go up, we find a way to claw back in the last minute of the [first] period, then we give up a goal immediately off a faceoff. That's a dangerous hockey team over there, we understand that. [And] we can all be better.»

To recap: Evander Kane and J.T. Compher traded the series' first goals 36 seconds apart in the first period and we were off to the races. When Compher scored his second goal, at 6:20 of the second, Colorado went up 6-3 and Edmonton goalie Mike Smith was pulled. It was 7-4 Avalanche entering the third, with Connor McDavid getting on the board, and the Oilers weren't done. Derek Ryan and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins closed the gap to 7-6 before Gabriel Landeskog's empty-netter iced it for Colorado.

All that scoring left us needing some time to pause for reflection. Is this how the entire series will go, just an endless barrage of chances with the last team to beat the goalie winning?

Is that level of output sustainable? Or even desirable?

History suggests there's some stabilization ahead. Then again, these teams are layered