It\u2019s Frozen Frenzy day, with all 32 NHL teams playing in 16 games starting at 4 p.m. MT, and the Avalanche will meet the Dallas Stars in Texas for the first of a home-and-home series at 6:30 p.m. MT!<\/p>\n
The Stars are fresh off a 2-1 SO loss in Pittsburgh, and the Avalanche arrive in Dallas on the heels of their worst loss of the short season against Toronto on home ice. Which Central Division powerhouse will prevail in \u2018Big D\u2019?<\/p>\n
The Avalanche are likely pining to hit the ice again after their performance against the Maple Leafs this past Saturday. The days since have been filled with talk of potential goalie concerns, defensive lapses, and, of course, more on Avalanche power-play production.<\/p>\n
I find myself dancing between seeing genuinely concerning things and knowing it\u2019s far too early in the season to draw many conclusions about this Colorado club. Many of my fears about this team have surfaced in their two losses, but even more about why they should be a legitimate threat to win it all bubble up in their victories.<\/p>\n
I\u2019d love to see the Avalanche win a defensively structured, playoff-like game in this home-and-home against Dallas, as I don\u2019t think it\u2019s unreasonable to expect at least a split series. That said, they are far more likely to secure the sweep if they tighten up their defense and stop playing like a team still in summer shinny mode. Colorado needs to raise their grown-up game against their fiercest rival.<\/p>\n
Speaking of raising the level, Mackenzie Blackwood will get the net tonight, so he\u2019ll have a chance to sway some detractors and show resolve after a tough 17-save, 23-shot evening in his last start. If that doesn\u2019t happen, former Star Scott Wedgewood will get a crack at planting the seeds of a goalie controversy<\/a> tomorrow night.<\/p>\n Mackenzie Blackwood The Stars have gotten off to a slower start than I think most fans and pundits expected, but it\u2019s not because of a lack of production from former Avalanche forward Mikko Rantanen, who has 6 points (2 goals, 4 assists). Scoring, however, has been the issue for the group as a whole. Dallas has scored 1 or fewer goals in each of its three defeats, including a shutout by the St. Louis Blues in their home opener.<\/p>\n Goaltender Jake Oettinger has looked excellent in his four starts, posting a 0.74 goals-against average and a .963 shot percentage, with two shutouts already on the books. Historically, Oettinger has been just okay against the Colorado Avalanche in the regular season, with a career regular-season 7-3-3 record, a .911 sv%, and a 3.05 GAA. Colorado\u2019s 40 regular-season goals against Oettinger are the most he\u2019s allowed to any one team in his career.<\/p>\n Jake Oettinger NOTE: Don\u2019t forget to download the new SB Nation app<\/a> for a more mobile-friendly way to follow tonight\u2019s action and engage with Mile High Hockey\u2019s match threads. The Game Chat feature makes it easier than ever to comment and interact with your communities. The app is currently available in the U.S. and Canada on iOS<\/a> and Android<\/a> devices.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s Frozen Frenzy day, with all 32 NHL teams playing in 16 games starting at 4 p.m. MT,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":465481,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[102,104,103,9621],"class_list":["post-465480","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-dallas","tag-dallas","tag-dallas-headlines","tag-dallas-news","tag-open-threads"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/465480","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=465480"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/465480\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/465481"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=465480"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=465480"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=465480"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Scott Wedgewood<\/p>\n
Casey DeSmith<\/p>\n