 |  |  |
| Chicago Blackhawks | Colorado Avalanche | |
| 13-6-7 | December 12, 2008 | 14-13-1 |
| Pepsi Center | ||
| Denver, CO | |
The 'stache is back.
Former Avalanche coach Joel Quenneville brings his Chicago Blackhawks to town tonight to face his old team. Some aspects of the Blackhawks may be a little foreign to folks who've watched the Quenneville-coached Avs over the last few seasons. For one, the Blackhawks are 3rd in the league in average scoring, and have the league's 8th best powerplay. Others things may be a tad more familiar; Quenneville is considering a goalie rotation now that Nikolai Khabibulin is recovered from a recent "lower body" injury.
Khabibulin will be in net tonight, his first start since November 26th. He always seems to do well against Colorado. The Blackhawks have been just fine with Cristobal Huet in his absence - they are 6-2-2 in their last 10 games. Presumably, Peter Budaj will be the guy for the Avs.
Both the Avs and Hawks are riding 2-game winning streaks. Chicago is 3-0-1 in December, while Colorao is 3-1-1. The teams played each other on November 3rd, and Kane's Citizens walloped the Avs 6-2 (thanks to two goals by both Patrick Sharp and Andrew Ladd).
The only notable injury for chicao seems to be Adam Burish. The Avs are missing Joe Sakic, Ben Guite, Darcy Tucker, Brian Willsie and Marek Svatos. Adam Foote is expected to return to the lineup, sending Daniel Tjarnqvist back to the press box. Phillipe Dupuis has been recalled from Lake Erie and should play, uh, somewhere.
Fun Fact: The Blackhawks have two players on their roster under 6 feet tall (Patrick Kane and Kris Verteeg). The Avalanche have 7.
As always, feel free to go crazy doing whatever it is that you do during the game. The Avs have pledged to score one goal for every 100 comments in this thread.