Preview: Avalanche begin divisional play against Blackhawks
Photo by Alysa Rubin/Clarkson Creative/Getty Images
The second leg of a back-to-back is tonight. Less than 24 hours after a crazy 5-4 victory over the Ottawa Senators the Colorado Avalanche will return to Ball Arena to face off against the Chicago Blackhawks. This will be the Avs's first divisional game, as well as their first back-to-back, of the season.
Colorado has the advantage against Chicago in their matchups from the past few seasons and they will look to keep that while extending their five-game win streak tonight.
Colorado Avalanche
Fresh off of one of the weirdest games of the season the Avalanche are going to run it back with an identical skater lineup. There were some lineup alterations last game, with Nathan MacKinnon and Casey Mittelstadt swapping wing pairings and Cale Makar and Sam Malinski switching spots. Bednar said in his post-game presser that those were in-the-moment decisions to give some of the Avs high-end players a spark, so there’s no expectation for them to stick coming into this game.
Cale Makar and Nathan MacKinnon held on to their season-opening point streaks in the win but weren’t the dominant forces we’ve seen them be. Casey Mittelstadt and Ross Colton also continued their hot streaks with three assists for Mittelstadt and another goal for Colton. All four of these players will play a big role in the Avs's success tonight with the team having tired legs.
Projected Lines
Ross Colton (20) - Nathan MacKinnon (29) - Mikko Rantanen (96)Nikolai Kovalenko (51) - Casey Mittelstadt (37) - Logan O’Connor (25)Miles Wood (28) - Parker Kelly (17) - Joel Kiviranta (94)Ivan Ivan (82) - Matthew Stienburg (36) - Chris Wagner (14)
Devon Toews (7) - Cale Makar (8)Sam Girard (49) - Josh Manson (42)Calvin de Haan (44) - Sam Malinski (70)
Chicago Blackhawks
The Blackhawks have struggled to start this season. They are 2-6-1 heading into Ball Arena and currently sit last in the Central Division now that Nashville and Colorado have found their footing a bit.
Chicago is going the opposite way of Colorado, having lost their last four games. The Blackhawks do have a rest advantage though, having not played yesterday they will have the legs to end their streak if things go the way they want them to.
This will also be the Avs's first look against the pest-bolstered lineup of the Blackhawks including Pat Maroon and Tyler Bertuzzi.
Projected Lines
Philip Kurashev (23) - Connor Bedard (98) - Teuvo Teravainen (86)Taylor Hall (71) - Nick Foligno (17) - Tyler Bertuzzi (59)Ilya Mikheyev (95) - Jason Dickinson (16) - Ryan Donato (8)Pat Maroon (77) - Lukas Reichel (73) - Craig Smith (15)
Wyatt Kaiser (44) - Seth Jones (3) Alex Vlasic (72) - Connor Murphy (5)Nolan Allan (42) - TJ Brodie (78)
Goaltenders
Petr Mrazek was the first goaltender off the ice for the Blackhawks this morning, so he’s likely their starter.
Jared Bednar said before the back-to-back that Justus Annunen and Alexandar Georgiev would split the two games. With Annunen getting the start and the win last game Geoergiev is likely to see his first action in four games tonight.
The pressure is on for Georgiev after Annunen led the Avs to four straight wins while he was in net. He’s going to need a big game if he wants to get his net back.
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