Happy Boxing Day everyone. I do hope everyone had a lovely Christmas or Hanukkah or whatever your holiday of choice may be. The Avalanche are back in action today (afternoon game warning) against the team currently sitting atop the NW division - the Minnesota Wild.
This is a story of several streaks. The Wild have been hot all year, with two 5-game winning streaks and a 7-game winning streak. Meanwhile, they hadn't lost more than two in a row all year...until now. Right now, Minnesota is on a 6-game losing streak, scoring just 7 goals in the span. Included in that streak was a 3-game road fizzle against Calgary, Edmonton and Vancouver, a feat the Avs pulled off not so long ago.
The Avalanche, of course, are riding a 4-game winning streak and an 8-game home winning streak. But they will be on road today and have lost 9 straight away from the Pepsi Center. I mean, Joakim Lindstrom was playingfor the Avs the last time Colorado won on the road. Improbably, the Avalanche have the best road PP in the league, at 29.8%. Then why are they losing? Because they have the 3rd worst road PK. If the Avalanche follow up the masterful PK performance from the last game with a clunker today...well, I'll be mad, bro.
This is just the second meeting of these teams this year and the previous game - a 1-0 loss in Minnesota - was a memorable one. That was the game where Justin Falk completely douched it up by attacking David Jones after getting leveled by a solid hit, where Cal Clutterbuck's missed high stick late in the 3rd led directly to the Wild's lone goal, and where Erik Johnson made a questionable decision to go after Matt Cullen as time was expiring. In other words, it could be interesting.