Hopefully the members of the Colorado Avalanche had a lot to eat yesterday, because they're going to need a lot of energy over the next several days. After today's game against the Coyotes in Arizona, the Avs fly home to face the Tampa Bay Lightning in Denver tomorrow, then fly out to Minnesota to play the Wild on Sunday Monday.
Also fighting the overwhelming urge to fall asleep at any second is the swaggering Peter Budaj. Today will be his twelfth consecutive start in goal. He showed significant fatigue against Anaheim on the 24th and had to be pulled in the third period, but he was back in top form against the Blues on Wednesday. Though he has a proven track record of playing better the more consecutive starts he gets, one must assume that he can't last forever. That being the case, I'd say it's pretty much 100% likely that Andrew Raycroft will start tomorrow against the Lightning.
Besides the risk of fatigue, the Avalanche don't get to rest on their laurels after beating the Blues on Wednesday---the injuries keep mounting. John-Michael Liles has apparently contracted the SARS virus and will miss today's game, while Adam Foote remains significantly injured from the dirty hit by John Zeiler. Ben Guite may never be seen again, and it's still unclear whether Joe Sakic has officially returned to the lineup despite his appearance against the Blues. He missed the last nine minutes of that game and didn't practice yesterday, apparently still resting that bad back of his. Darcy Tucker is also out, of course, but not many of us really care about him. With the considerable personnel gaps they're now facing, the remaining Avalanche players will need to play like they actually care about winning games.
In goal for the Coyotes will be backup Mikael Tellqvist, subbing for Ilya Bryzgalov, loser of his last five starts. Tellqvist's last start was a 38-save win Wednesday against the Columbus Blue Jackets. Hopefully the Avs play better than those slackers from Ohio.
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