Game 13 Preview: Anaheim at Colorado: What are we made of?

Well, the Avs managed to snag a point against the Blues, which, I guess, is ok.  After the way they have cumulatively played, I'm not sure they could have done much better against this pretty good Blues team.  They face off against the formidable Anaheim Ducks, who have started the season 9-3-0.

The Ducks are... well, good.  They have a really stout goaltender pairing of Frederik Andersen and John Gibson, honestly neither of whom I knew much about until this season.  Andersen is going to get the start, and with his .941 save percentage and 1.60 goals against average, the Avs are going to have their work cut out for them.  Add on top of that Corey Perry (14 points in 12 games) and Ryan Getzlaf (a point per game pace), we will probably have some issues dealing with this team.

The Avs have been trying to find their groove, and make some noise.  They got our hopes up with that outstanding win over the Isles, and they lose that spark a little in other times.  I honestly didn't watch any of the game against the Blues, but we didn't seem to be out played on the score sheet.  We can't really blame puck bounces or the like; good teams find ways to win no matter how the luck runs.  Can the Avs find that groove?  We need to soon, if we want to avoid being in an endless point race for the playoffs.

This is going to be a big one, folks.  Hard fought, and a real good test of this team.  How will we do?

Lines

Landeskog, Duchene, O'Reilly

Iginla, MacKinnon, McGinn

Tanguay, Mitchell, Everberg

McLeod, Cliche, Talbot

Johnson / Hejda

Holden / Stuart

Barrie / Guenin (Redmond please?)

Notes

- MacKinnon seems to have shaken off his cobwebs and come to play.  He now has 8 points in 12 games, which is something I have been waiting for.  He will be ok, and his sophomore slump won't really be noticeable.

- Erik Johnson is tied with like 7 other defense men with 7 points this season.  If he gets another, he will have the immense opportunity to be tied with like 6 other defense men jostling for 'second' place.  SJS's Brent Burns holds the top spot with 13 points this season.

- I feel like I should be busting Ryan O'Reilly's balls a little, but he does have 8 points on the season, even if two of them came last night.  I just feel like he could, and should, be doing a little more.  Of course, so could half  a dozen other guys on the team, but whatever.

- All of our guys' faceoffs have been terrible.  No one is over 49%.  Change please.

Game Time

8pm EDT, 6pm MDT

Shown on Altitude.

Held at the Pepsi Center, Denver, CO.  Capacity:  18007

Lets try to fill that, shall we?