 |  |  |
| Anaheim Ducks | 9:00 pm ET / 7:00 pm MT | Colorado Avalanche |
| 36-31-6 | March 19, 2009 | 31-40-2 |
| 78 points | Pepsi Center | 64 Points |
| 8th in West | Denver, CO | 15th in West |
The last time we saw the Avalanche at the Pepsi Center, they were facing the 8th-placed team in the West, and got slaughtered. Tonight, the Avalanche will again face the 8th-placed team (Anaheim this time instead of Edmonton). And, with no Stastny, Sakic, Svatos, Stewart, Foote, Tjarnqvist, Jones, Cumiskey, Tucker and Nycholat (whew)...well, this game may not be all that much fun to watch either.
A couple of notes. One - the Avalanche are currently tied with Tampa for the 2nd-worst record in the league. But, the Avalanche hold the tiebreaker (in a bad way) for wins, so if the two teams end up tied, Tampa would have the higher draft position. The 'Ning (guh) are idle tonight, but play tomorrow against the suddenly-hapless Habs.
More importantly (or less importantly, depending on your perspective) - a regulation win by the Ducks tonight would all but eliminate the Avalanche from playoff contention. If that happens, Colorado would have to win every remaining game and have a bunch of teams go winless down the stretch. It's a mere formality of course - at best, the Avalanche can get to 82 points (going into tonight). 6 teams have already passed that point and 4 more are within 3 wins of doing the same...
Apparently, there's no consensus as to who will be shutting out the Avalanche tonight, but the speculation is that Jonas Hiller has drawn the lucky long straw (or perhaps it's because the Ducks played last night). Peter Budaj returns to the scene of the recent massacre.
