The Colorado Avalanche are once again riding a five-game winning streak after beating both the Dallas Stars and Minnesota Wild via shootout last week, and they\u2019ll look to make it six straight against an Edmonton Oilers team that simply can\u2019t seem to keep the puck out of their own net.<\/p>\n
Edmonton\u2019s defensive issues \u2014 both in their own zone and between the pipes \u2014 have been a constant problem lately, resulting in a 4\u20136 record over their last ten games. It\u2019s a frustrating stretch for a team that can score with anyone in the league, but one that continues to give just as much back the other way.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Colorado continues to do what contenders do this time of year: stack wins.<\/p>\n
The Colorado Avalanche welcomed the return of Nazem Kadri the last time they were on home ice and were able to secure the victory despite not having Artturi Lehkonen or Gabe Landeskog in the lineup. Colorado has managed to stay afloat through the injuries thanks to its depth and elite top end \u2014 the club still sits among the league leaders in scoring while MacKinnon remains near the top of the NHL scoring race.<\/p>\n
Landeskog\u2019s injury has been covered at length due to its occurrence in a uniquely \u201cuncomfortable\u201d region of the body, but it still came as a surprise on game day. He was given the week-to-week distinction, but Landeskog has proven that nothing can keep him from playing hockey for long. Here he is at morning skate:<\/p>\n
Lehkonen, on the other hand, has a bit of mystery surrounding his status. What was originally suspected to be an injury from wearing a puck up high has now shifted to speculation about other parts of the upper body. I\u2019m sure we will get a Lehky update, either pre- or postgame, as most are eager to see what this Avalanche squad looks like when fully healthy.<\/p>\n
Note: Both Landeskog and Lehkonen are listed as OUT as of right now.<\/p>\n
MacKenzie Blackwood
Scott Wedgewood<\/p>\n
Edmonton\u2019s struggles are pretty obvious, but it feels like every effort management makes to settle the issue just reaggravates the ineptitude.<\/p>\n
Acquiring the services of Tristan Jarry hasn\u2019t stemmed the goals-against tide. In fact, the Oilers continue to give up more than 3 goals per game, placing them in the bottom third of the league defensively.<\/p>\n
Whenever you employ Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl, scoring goals shouldn\u2019t be an issue \u2014 and it hasn\u2019t been. Edmonton sits among the NHL\u2019s highest-scoring teams and boasts the league\u2019s most dangerous power play, converting on more than 32.8 percent of its opportunities. That offensive firepower hasn\u2019t consistently translated to wins because the defensive commitment simply hasn\u2019t been there on a nightly basis.<\/p>\n
If Colorado can force Edmonton to play in its own end \u2014 something the Avalanche have done well during this current winning streak \u2014 the matchup could once again turn into a track meet. And while that might be Edmonton\u2019s comfort zone offensively, it\u2019s also exactly where their defensive problems tend to show up the most.<\/p>\n
Connor Ingram
Trysten Jarry<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Colorado Avalanche are once again riding a five-game winning streak after beating both the Dallas Stars and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":528407,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194294],"tags":[49,48,23752,207566],"class_list":{"0":"post-528406","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-edmonton","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-edmonton","11":"tag-open-threads"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/528406","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=528406"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/528406\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/528407"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=528406"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=528406"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=528406"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}