Tonight, the Colorado Avalanche welcome the Anaheim Ducks to Ball Arena in downtown Denver, CO, for an inter-divisional matchup between a budding group and a grizzled powerhouse. The Avalanche got back in the win column against the Washington Capitals by the score of 5-2 after finally dropping their first regulation win at home. The Ducks are a bit of a surprise success this season and have won four in a row as they arrive in the Mile High City. Will the Ducks cruise at altitude, or will the Avalanche reign supreme?<\/p>\n
Colorado Avalanche: 34-5-8<\/p>\n
The Opponent: Anaheim Ducks 25-21-3<\/p>\n
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Time: 7:00 p.m. MT<\/p>\n
Watch: Altitude, Altitude+, ESPN+<\/p>\n
Listen: Altitude Sports Radio, 92.5 FM<\/p>\n
Colorado Avalanche<\/p>\n
The boys in burgundy and blue aren\u2019t exactly desperate for a win or involved in an intense race for the division lead, but it\u2019s never good to give up 7 goals to a divisional opponent on home ice. That\u2019s exactly what happened when the Nashville Predators came into town. The question then became, how would they respond?<\/p>\n
Well, they responded by beating the Capitals seemingly (respectfully) with ease. It felt like they were back to business as usual and had shaken off the remaining rust accrued over a long break by the third period.<\/p>\n
Good news on the injury front and some clarification in terms of Val Nichushkin and being involved in a vehicle collision, as Jared Bednar says Devon Toews will be an option Sunday against the Leafs, Landeskog is progressing nicely, and Val Nichushkin is \u201cgoing to go tonight.\u201d<\/p>\n
Look for the Avalanche to shut things down defensively and try to buck the trend of slow starts tonight against the Ducks. It would be nice to get back to scoring inside the first minute of the game again, but that\u2019s just my opinion.<\/p>\n
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Projected Lineup:<\/p>\n
Artturi Lehkonen<\/a> \u2014 Nathan MacKinnon<\/a> \u2014 Martin Necas<\/a> Sam Malinski<\/a> \u2014 Cale Makar<\/a> Scott Wedgewood Anaheim Ducks<\/p>\n It\u2019s currently duck season in Colorado, so Anaheim had better keep its wits about it. I know that the Ducks are a team that has gotten a ton of roses for improving over the past few seasons, but to me, they really haven\u2019t in that time frame. They still sit in my mind as a middling club that harbours talent that should be prime pickings come trade deadline time.<\/p>\n That may come off harsh, but I just don\u2019t believe in this roster as much as I did before the season started. Namely, Chris Kreider just hasn\u2019t realized the level of impact that he achieved during his time in New York with the Rangers.<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n Have the Ducks won four in a row? Yes.<\/p>\n Are they 4-5-1 in their last ten games? Also yes.<\/p>\n Projected Lineup:<\/p>\n Chris Kreider<\/a> \u2014 Mason McTavish<\/a> \u2014 Ryan Strome<\/a> Jackson Lacombe<\/a> \u2014 Jacob Trouba<\/a> Lukas Dostal Follow along in the comments below!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tonight, the Colorado Avalanche welcome the Anaheim Ducks to Ball Arena in downtown Denver, CO, for an inter-divisional…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":143964,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[4855,72087,163,824,165,164,31695,23797,91,31692,72088,1717,92,1718,31697,6489,23798,31691,10370,31526,37613,31700,24247,1721,823,12753,24178,16534,31696,18469,5429,31698,10371,15954,4860,31699,31216,31527,1606,72086,31693,31688,41791,8319],"class_list":["post-143963","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-anaheim","tag-alex-killorn","tag-altitude-sports","tag-anaheim","tag-anaheim-ducks","tag-anaheim-headlines","tag-anaheim-news","tag-artturi-lehkonen","tag-avalanche","tag-brent-burns","tag-brock-nelson","tag-cale-makar","tag-chris-kreider","tag-colorado-avalanche","tag-cutter-gauthier","tag-devon-toews","tag-drew-helleson","tag-gavin-brindley","tag-jack-drury","tag-jacob-trouba","tag-jared-bednar","tag-jeffrey-viel","tag-josh-manson","tag-mackenzie-blackwood","tag-mason-mctavish","tag-mikael-granlund","tag-nashville-predators","tag-nathan-mackinnon","tag-olen-zellweger","tag-parker-kelly","tag-pavel-mintyukov","tag-radko-gudas","tag-ross-colton","tag-ross-johnston","tag-ryan-poehling","tag-ryan-strome","tag-sam-malinski","tag-samuel-girard","tag-scott-wedgewood","tag-the-ducks","tag-val-nichushkin","tag-valeri-nichushkin","tag-victor-olofsson","tag-ville-husso","tag-washington-capitals"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143963","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=143963"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143963\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/143964"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=143963"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=143963"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=143963"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Ross Colton<\/a> \u2014 Brock Nelson<\/a> \u2014 Valeri Nichushkin<\/a>
Parker Kelly<\/a> \u2014 Jack Drury<\/a> \u2014 Victor Olofsson<\/a>
Taylor Makar<\/a> \u2014 Zakhar Bardakov<\/a> \u2014 Gavin Brindley<\/a><\/p>\n
Josh Manson<\/a> \u2014 Brent Burns<\/a>
Jack Ahcan<\/a> \u2014 Samuel Girard<\/a><\/p>\n
MacKenzie Blackwood<\/p>\n
Alex Killorn<\/a> \u2014 Mikael Granlund<\/a> \u2014 Beckett Sennecke<\/a>
Jeffrey Viel<\/a> \u2014 Ryan Poehling<\/a> \u2014 Cutter Gauthier<\/a>
Ross Johnston<\/a> \u2014 Tim Washe<\/a> \u2014 Ian Moore<\/a><\/p>\n
Pavel Mintyukov<\/a> \u2014 Drew Helleson<\/a>
Olen Zellweger<\/a> \u2014 Radko Gudas<\/a><\/p>\n
Ville Husso<\/p>\n