Avalanche Head into a Challenging Weekend Needing Points
The Colorado Avalanche and the Carolina Hurricanes will face off tonight at Pepsi Center for military appreciation night. The Hurricanes are last in the Eastern Conference, a disappointing placement for a young team that was hoping to be in the hunt. The Avalanche currently sit 12th in the Western Conference and are actually one point better than they were through the same number of games last year. However, the Avs won only five of their last 27 games.
The Avalanche hope to build on of their successful 5-2 victory over the Chicago Blackhawks Tuesday night. The Avs top two lines provided most of the production. The lines were a revamped look that saw Peter Mueller skating with Ryan O’Reilly and Gabriel Landeskog, and Paul Stastny with wingers Milan Hejduk and David Jones. Colorado is expected to keep the same defensemen and goaltender from the home victory, which means rookie Tyson Barrie will make his second NHL start on the blue line. J.S. Giguere is expected to be in net; he made 29 of 31 saves.
On Saturday, the Avalanche head to St. Louis to see some familiar faces on the Blues. February 18th marks the one-year anniversary of the infamous trade which sent Chris Stewart and Kevin Shattenkirk to the Blues for Erik Johnson, Jay McClemment and a draft pick that turned into Duncan Siemens.
Kevin Shattenkirk has been the best player in the trade. The second year defenseman has 23 points. Stewart and Johnson have not lived up to expectations and Siemens has a concussion with his junior team. There are rumors that the Avs may make a trade to reacquire Stewart before the deadline.
Blues goalie Brian Elliot also had a brief stint with the Avs last year. He was the return on the Craig Anderson trade. For the Avs he was 2-8-1 with a 3.88 goals against average. This year, he is 17-5-7, with a league best goals against average of 1.62. He is a big reason the Blues are fourth in the Western Conference with 71 points.
The Avalanche need points this weekend. The Hurricanes are in the Eastern Conference and the Blues are far ahead in the standings, so the Avalanche can even send the games to overtime if necessary, but they have to find ways to win. The Avs currently sit three points out of the playoffs, with three teams ahead of them also out of the final spot. The Avalanche had a four game losing streak before the win against Chicago. They need to reverse recent results soon to get back into the playoff race.
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