Game 26 Preview: Avs @ Oilers

Colorado travels to the wintery confines of Edmonton, Alberta for this season's first meeting with an old Northwest Division college lottery buddy.

Oil:  Duuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuude!!! Long time no see!!! Still suck?

Avs: No, you miscreant.  Still racing for the bottom?

Oil: Don't be a drag, man.  We're like totally legit now.  We signed an actual goalie.

Avs: Who, the corpse of Tim Thomas?

Oil: Nah, man.  He chose Florida instead.  We signed Bryzgalov.

Avs: The guy who publicly mocked your whole region while the backup in Anahiem?

Oil: That's our guy!!!

Avs: Didn't he get concussed the other night?

Oil: What's a concussion?  Is that what they're gonna call the foods stands at our bitchin' new arena?  It's named after some Roger dude.  I think it's Roger Gretzky.

Avs: Did you sniff paint as a kid?

Oil: Seriously brah, you gonna hang with use for the yearly envelope opening?  I figure we got two of the top 3 on lock, right?  Howsabout this time you let us get a defenseman.  I heard they help alot.

Avs:  You drafted Darnell Nurse last season, you cretin.

Oil: Ohhhh yeah.  Totally forgot about him.  He's gonna anchor our top pair with Justin Schultz!

Avs: About that...

Oil: Hey! Hey! We got the best guy in a trade with the Blues.  Name's David Perron.  I bet he's glad to get out of St. Louis, right?

Avs: Sure he is.  Now he's the best player on the team.

Oil: Huh?

Avs: Hey, you guys have to be happy with Nail Yakupov's play this season though, right?  Probably under-valued in the defensive zone though.

Oil: He should tots win the Selke.

Avs: You're sucking the fun out of this...

Oil: Man, we've won 9 games this year.  Ten more and we'll have matched next season.  And we've only played 29 games!

Avs: We've already eclipsed last year's 16 wins and we've only played 25.

Oil: What's eclipsed mean?  Is it like slew-footing?  Cuz I heard you have some goons on your team this year.  Some Scottish guy?

Avs: No. Just... no. By the way, how's the new coach working out?

Oil: He might hate Russians.

Avs: Yikes!

Here are your projected starting lineups:

BAD GUYS

Out: Ilya Bryzgalov (concussion/whiplash), Boyd Gordon (shoulder), Philip Larsen (back)

GOOD GUYS (tots guesses)

Out: Brad Malone (healthy), Nick Holden (healthy), Cory Sarich (maintenance), Alex Tanguay (knee), Ryan Wilson (back)

Check out Copper and Bluee for more coverage.

Puck drops 7:30pm MT / 9:30pm ET