Can the Avalanche win and sweep the season series against the defending champs?
Before this season, the Avalanche hadn’t won in Sunrise, FL, in quite some time but did so in late November by a score of 7-4. That victory featured a team scoring its way out of a goalie nightmare. That nightmare has ended, and the Avalanche will look to expand on their win over the Panthers in a snowy downtown Denver, CO, tonight. Doing so would secure the season sweep of the defending champs. Will it be Cats and Rats or another win for the boys in burgundy and blue?
Colorado Avalanche
This contest should prove a lofty challenge for the Avalanche despite their success earlier on in the season against Florida. The Avs are fresh off their first overtime loss of the season at the hands of a less talented but still dangerous Montreal Canadiens squad. That’s the sort of game you learn from as the Avalanche let an inferior foe stick around far too long, allowing an unexpected netminding performance to thwart their efforts at two points.
This needs to be a bounce-back game, and as Bednar and others echoed following the comeback against Buffalo, it shouldn’t take a guy going down to light a fire under these guys. They need all the points they can get as they jockey with Dallas for the third spot in the Central and first wild-card position.
Last time out (against the Panthers), Jo Drouin was one goal shy of netting a hat-trick. I predict that he, MacKinnon, and Rantanen do their thing tonight!
Projected Lineup:
Jonathan Drouin — Nathan MacKinnon — Mikko Rantanen
Artturi Lehkonen — Casey Mittelstadt — Ross Colton
Joel Kiviranta — Parker Kelly — Logan O’Connor
Jere Innala — Juuso Parssinen — Tye Felhaber
Devon Toews — Cale Makar
Samuel Girard — Josh Manson
Keaton Middleton — Sam Malinski
Note: It remains to be seen if Val Nichushkin will be making his return to the lineup tonight.
Florida Panthers
The Panthers are the real deal, and their record puts that on display, but any team is bound to struggle to repeat. We know just how difficult that can be here in Colorado, and it will prove just as tricky for Florida. With that said, the nucleus and depth of their club are still largely intact, so they present a real threat as repeaters.
Keep an eye on former Avalanche Evan Rodrigues, who has worked himself into a top-six role in Florida after an outstanding playoff performance last season. As we know, Evan is sneaky and quick and has plenty of skill to boot.
Projected Lineup:
Evan Rodrigues — Aleksander Barkov — Sam Reinhart
Eetu Luostarinen — Sam Bennett — Matthew Tkachuk
Carter Verhaeghe — Anton Lundell — Jesper Boqvist
A.J. Greer — Tomas Nosek — Mackie Samoskevich
Gustav Forsling — Aaron Ekblad
Uvis Balinskis — Dmitry Kulikov
Nate Schmidt — Adam Boqvist
Goaltenders
Sergei Bobrovsky has the unconfirmed not for the Panthers, and the Avalanche will likely go with Mackenzie Blackwood!