As you know, the Avs are in a tiny bit of a scoring slump (yes, Jibs, that was sarcasm too). After scoring 28 goals in their first 7 games, the Avs have 22 in the last 13 - and 4 of those goals have come in the shootout. 6 times in the last 12 games - the Avs have been held to a goal or less.
If recent history is an indication, we'll see the red light quite a bit this evening in the game against the Blues. Unfortunately, it's probably going to be the visiting team doing the celebratory bench skate-bys. The Blues are 5-3 against the Avs in the last two years. Legace is 5-1 over that stretch, although with the way Chris Mason played last night (a 47-save 1-0 shootout win), Legace may be the lesser of two evils...
Here's the results from the meetings over the last two years.
- St Louis 4 - Colorado 1 (02/14/08)
- Colorado 6 - St Louis 4 (02/02/08)
- Colorado 9 - St Louis 5 (12/09/07)
- St Louis 4 - Colorado 1 (10/12/07)
- St Louis 2 - Colorado 0 (12/30/06)
- St Louis 4 - Colorado 2 (12/29/06)
- Colorado 4 - St Louis 1 (12/13/06)
- St Louis 4 - Colorado 1 (11/02/06)
Other than the 2-0 Legace shutout, the winning team has reached at least 4 goals in every game. The Avs haven't had 4 regulation goals since October 23rd. If you're a betting man, you're thinking a 4-1 St Louis win is a good bet.
In the 8 games, 9 players have scored at least two goals in a game (Guerin, Rucinksy, Hinote, McClement, Hejduk, Stastny, Wolski, Hensick, Guite). Only one of the 9 managed a hat trick (Hejduk) and none have hit the multi-goal mark in more than one game. Guite and Hinote are both on IR and Guerin and Rucinsky are no longer with the Blues, but the other 5 should be in the lineup). Who will be the newest to join the multi-goal club? I'll throw a random dart at the name of David Perron.
But wouldn't be great if it was a guy wearing a dark unipron?