Yup.
I wasn't able to watch last night's game, but have a few general things to say that are independent of that game. Will start with your comment.
1) Schmidt>Stanley against Colorado--he has the necessary foot speed, lots of playoff experience, can move the puck, and all that will make Samberg better, playing on his natural side and not having to worry about the other guy. And no, I am not going to bring up Heinola--that would be rude
I think we are stuck with Pionk on the second pair and just have to hope he transforms into good Pionk, which is distinctly possible in a short series.
2) Our big advantage over Colorado is goaltending and we will win and lose with Helle. Playoffs are tiny sample sizes we know all goalies have bad streaks. I'd leave him in and hope he steals a game or two.
3) Speaking small samples, sounds like Ehlers made a mistake and we paid for it. But, like Helle, we can't win without him playing well, we know his impact on games over meaningful stretches, and we have to give both of them the latitude to perform over a longer series of games.
4)With home ice advantage, Colorado is going to try to feast on our slow D and defensively suspect forwards. Despite CS's recent success, I haven't changed my mind about ESV and CMX being a better top 6; in this case, X could be Perfetti or Tofolli, but Perfetti would work better with Connor, IMO. I also know the likelihood of this happening is next to 0, so am prepared for the consequences and fervently hoping to be wrong.