Big game. The Avs are in St Louis tonight - their 7th back-to-back out of 10 this year - in the 4th and final matchup against the Blues (and the second straight game against a Stewart brother). With a win and a Phoenix regulation loss, the Avs will pass the Coyotes and the idle Stars and move into 8th. With a loss, they could fall behind Minnesota and Calgary; both are just a point behind and are in action tonight. With the Avs looking at anywhere from 8th to 12th based on this game, we're comfortable calling it a must-win - especially as their next two games are against NW teams.

The Avs have been in better shape offensively lately, with some new guys like Paul Stastny, David Jones and Milan Hejduk arriving on the scene to make a big impact. I don't know where those three came from, but it's been great to have some secondary scoring for Gabriel Landeskog and Ryan O'Reilly.

That added offense will be needed tonight, as the Avalanche will face the superb Brian Elliott tonight (not that facing Jaroslav Halak would have been any easier - both goalies have been ridiculous this year and St Louis has 10 total shutouts). The Avs will go with Semyon Varlamov, who has three straight losses and will need a BIG game tonight. He's 3-0 with a 1.62 GAA lifetime against St Louis.

I'm sure I don't need to tell anyone that Chris Stewart and Kevin Shattenkirk have 10 points in 5 games against the Avs since the trade.

Milan Hejduk ties Adam Foote with 967 games with the franchise, #2 all-time. I guess he's not so new after all?

	Stats
56	GP	53
28	W	32
25	L	14
3	OT	7
59	P	71
0.527	P%	0.670
2.45	G/G	2.47
2.77	GA/G	1.94
18.9	PP%	13.0
82.3	PK%	81.0
31.5	S/G	31.2
29.1	SA/G	26.4
52.1	FO%	49.8

The Avs broke free from their scoring woes with Tuesday night's big win over the faltering Blackhawks and will look to continue their uphill climb towards the post season tonight as they take on the Eastern Conference worst Carolina Hurricanes.

Despite only amassing only 50 points thus far, the Canes have been coming on strong of late and are 5-2-3 in their last ten, so even when they're not winning they're still earning loser points. Speaking of loser points, Calgary and Phoenix went to OT last night before Shane Doan ended it, Dallas won, and Vancouver settled the Wild, meaning that with a win tonight the best the Avs could do is jump into 9th place.

The Avalanche are 10-2 against the East this season, and 3-1 against the Canes' Southeastern brethren. Carolina is 4-4-2 versus the West, but 2-1 against the Northwest. This will be the one and only meeting between the two clubs this season. Carolina is coming off an overtime loss Wednesday to the Ducks and are in the midst of a 3 game road trip.

David Jones has tallied 3 goals in his last two games. Paul Stastny is currently playing at a point per game pace as he's racked up 12 points in his past 12 games. Rookie Gabriel Landeskog leads the team in plus/minus with a +14. Plus minus is very corsi in terms of it's relevance, but when you take into account the only other current Avs sporting a positive +/- are Ryan Wilson +4 and David van der Gulik +2, Landy's +14 is pretty damn pretty.

Fun Fact: Stewart returns to Denver tonight! No, not that Stewart, the other one. Chris Stewart's brother Anthony cleared waivers this week and should play tonight if he doesn't find his under-performing self back in the minors.

The Avs are playing a Northwest Division team. =(

Must win. I'm afraid that we're going to be saying that about a lot of games from now until the end of the season. And while it will probably be true each time it's said, this game really goes beyond that. Prediction: if the Avs win tonight, they stay in the race for the playoffs, but if they lose, the playoffs ain't happening. Yes, I realize that one loss isn't going to ruin the team's post-season hopes. However, a loss to this team right now will be indicative of the basic character of this team. If the Avalanche cannot find a way to beat a division foe that's in the hunt for the same spot in the standings, then there's no way we can expect them to get that ridiculous win streak they need. This game will show if these young players have what it takes to dig deep inside themselves and find the killer instinct they must have to be a playoff team.

Here are the standings. Yes, Dallas jumped the Avs. Did I mention how important this game is?

Giguere is in net tonight.

Playoff race: begin. As I mentioned yesterday, almost 1/3 of the Avs' remaining games are against the 5 teams with the worst records to date this year. One of those teams is the Edmonton Oilers, who we face 3 more times including tonight. The Oilers are absolutely a beatable team - they've lost 9 of their last 11 and and have scored 2 goals or less in a whopping 9 straight games (welcome news for Semyon Varlamov, who will start against Devan Dubnyk). The Avs are 1-2 against the Oilers tomorrow which, to be honest, is absolutely fucking ridiculous - almost as ridiculous as the Avs' 2-10 record against the NW.

The Avalanche currently sit in 9th place and just 3 points separate 5 teams between 8th and 12th. All 5 of those teams are in action tonight, none against each other; this means the Avs could be anywhere between 8th and 12th when the dust settles tonight. With that in mind, I feel comfortable declaring tonight's game a Must-Win game. Please update your calendars accordingly.

Avalanche skipper Joe Sacco is looking for career win #300 and Varlamov is looking for win #15 this year, which would tie his career best. Gabriel Landeskog is looking to extend his 3-game point streak (he has zero points to date against Edmonton). And Stefan Elliott is probably looking for vitamins and fluids after turning 21 on Monday. Meanwhile, David van der Gulik has never faced the Oilers, which makes him a player to watch (if, in fact, he plays).

	Stats
51	GP	49
26	W	18
23	L	26
2	OT	5
54	P	41
0.529	P%	0.418
2.43	G/G	2.45
2.82	GA/G	2.82
19.1	PP%	21.3
81.5	PK%	82.2
31.1	S/G	26.2
29.1	SA/G	30.9
52.1	FO%	48.5

The Avalanche are in action tonight taking on the [yawn] in a big-winner-might-take-all-battle at the Pepsi Center. One of these two teams will be in 8th spot going into the All-Star break; Colorado stays in 8th with a regulation win, otherwise it will be the [zzzzzzz]. Obviously, both teams are in the middle of a tight race, with 7 teams in the West separated by just 7 points and with 4 of those teams currently sitting on the outside looking in, it's going to be a dogfight. It would be great for the Avs to get 2 points here and not let the [snore] get the Bettman point, both for the points race and the potential head-to-head tiebreaker at the end of the year (each team has one win in head-to-head meetings so far).

When prepping for preview (yes, believe it or not), I thought it might be interesting to look at the Avs' record this January (5-4-1) and compare it to their last few Januarys. But then I decided that I don't really give a fuck about what happened last year or the year before. This year's Avalanche are hanging in there despite an offense that could be best described as anemic (15 goals in the last 8 games) and a defensive / goaltending squad that is also struggling (25 goals in those same 8).

I firmly believe this is one of those games that will tell us a LOT about this season's Colorado Avalanche. It's not a must-win game or even a must-not-lose game. But it is a game that they absolutely SHOULD step up for. This is about as important as a game 51 can be. Will the boys step up? I can't wait to find out.

And for those who might like to grab some last minute tickets for the game, I'd like to remind everyone about the partnership we have with TiqIQ to help you score the best deals on tickets. You can find some deals on tonight's game against the [snooze] here, and all other Avalanche games using the link at the top of the page that says, simply enough, tickets. I know some MHHers have taken advantage of this service and I'd love to hear feedback about your experience (good or bad) in the comments below.

Go Avs

	Stats
48	GP	50
23	W	26
18	L	22
7	OT	2
53	P	54
0.552	P%	0.540
2.23	G/G	2.44
2.48	GA/G	2.82
14.4	PP%	19.4
82.7	PK%	81.7
26.7	S/G	31.2
32.2	SA/G	29.0
52.0	FO%	52.1

The Avalanche make their last visit to Southern California tonight as they play the Ducks at the Honda Center. The Ducks have the 3rd-worst record in the NHL, so they should be easy picking for the...oops, not so fast. Anaheim is one of the hottest teams in the league right now. They are 7-0-1 in their last 8 games, outscoring their opponents by a dominating 33-14 margin. Former Av Teemu Selanne has 44 points for the Ducks and Corey Perry has 22 goals. Not feeling all warm and fuzzy about this one. Both teams played on Saturday but neither had to travel far - Anaheim hosted (and defeated) the Senators, while the Avs were 30 miles up the road in LA.

In happier news, J.S. Giguere has never lost to his former team, going 3-0 with a .938 save percentage. As of this writing, the starter has not been named.

Game 49. Exactly 59.756% of the way through the season. The All-Star Break is in 9 days. The NHL Trade Deadline is in 37 days. The game is scheduled for 8:30 pm MT. [Editor's Note: You know you are an engineer when...].

The Avalanche are back on the road after their one game stop in Denver on Wednesday where they earned a shootout win against the Panthers. The Kings are playing their second consecutive home game and are coming off a shootout loss to the Flames on Thursday. With the All-Star Break looming, Los Angeles and recent head coaching hire Darryl Sutter look to give themselves a chance to win the homestand with victories over the Avs and the visiting Sens on Tuesday. Wins in those games would push the Kings points streak to 8 games. Colorado continues the road trip in Anaheim on Sunday before returning to the Pepsi Center on Tuesday in the run up to the break (for everybody except Gabriel Landeskog of course).

Seventh-place LA sits 4 points ahead of the Avs, but only 1 point behind 3rd place San Jose who holds the slim lead in the Pacific Division. Meanwhile, Colorado is looking up at Vancouver (up 8 points) who hold down the NW Division throne and 2nd Playoff spot. The Avalanche has a bevy of playoff suitors nipping at their heels as swooning regressing Minnesota is just one point back with a game in hand and Dallas is right behind them with three games in their favor. Right there with them in the Annual Western Conference Playoff Logjam is Calgary and Phoenix although Jewels From The Crown contends that it isn't as bunched up as previous years. I said all that to say this: Points are important. The Avs need to come out of this Left Coast Swing with a cushion. Since the Kings are fans of giving points away under Sutter (8-1-6 since being hired), hopefully the Avs can garner at least one point out of tonight's tilt.

When the Avs and Kings faced off in the City of Angels a couple of weeks ago, the Kings fans felt they had been bamboozled by NHL officiating. LA winger Simon Gagne is still out with a concussion and the remainder of their forward corp. produces at an somewhat familiar rate to Avalanche fans (106 GF in LA, 124 GF in COL). I'm not sure what lineup changes are in store for Colorado tonight as Wilson is healthy and Hejda is available. I assume Jonathan Quick in net for the Kings and internet rumblings have Jean-Sebastien Giguere start tonight. I assume Semyon Varlamov will split duties on the 2nd half of the back-to-back tomorrow night.

Three points for everybody! Go Avalanche.