Game 14 Preview: Rangers @ Avalanche

The Avs fell to the Moonrakers in Thursday night's Thunderball for loss number Octopussy. The Avs saw the Skyfall as the Coyotes had a View to Kill after five days off and worked the Living Daylights out of the Avs' offensive License to Kill. The Avs know though that The World is Not Enough and they'll look to put their Goldfinger on the offensive trigger as they don't want to Die Another Day, because as you know with back-to-backs, You Only Live Twice.

Seeing how it is the opening weekend of the latest Bond film, it only seems fitting to incorporate a few titles in the preview. But in all seriousness, the Avs need a win against the Rangers Friday night to get things going. With the loss against the Coyotes, the Avs are still without consecutive victories on the year. The Avs possessed the puck well on Thursday, including on the penalty kill, but they failed again to take advantage of their power play chances. The Avs are one of the best teams in the NHL at drawing penalties, but if they continue to fail to convert on the power play, those chances go for naught.

The Avs power play will have a tall order ahead of them in the New York Rangers. The Rangers own the second best road penalty kill in the NHL, having surrendered just one power play goal all year while away from Madison Square Garden. Looking to return to the Eastern Conference Finals for the third straight year, the Rangers continue to rely on a strong defensive style of hockey, as well as its aging, but still all-star caliber goaltender, Henrik Lundqvist. Playing now in his 11th season in the NHL, Lundqvist looks to add Stanley Cup to his extensive resume that includes an Olympic gold and a Vezina trophy. The Avs will look to break through their inconsistent goal scoring against Lundqvist and the Rangers' league best team goal against average.

LINES

Tanguay-MacKinnon-Duchene

Landeskog-Soderberg-Iginla

Everberg-Street-Skille

McLeod-Grigorenko-Comeau

Beauchemin-Johnson

Holden-Barrie

Zadorov-Gormley

Berra

Varlamov

NOTES

- After racking up 42 goals last season, Rick Nash has just  one goal through twelve games this season.

- The ever-streaky Duchene now has points in the last three games.

- With an assist on Duchene's goal Thursday, Nathan MacKinnon has now worked his way into a tie for seventh in NHL scoring.

- At the age of 50, Monica Bellucci is the oldest actor to be cast as a Bond girl.

GAME INFO

Game time: 7pm MT

TV: ALT2