Good morning and welcome to your preview thread. Today at 1:00 PM mountain time the Avalanche of Colorado take on the Jets of Winnipeg at MTS Center. I have been out of the loop all day, but a quick check of the twitters has revealed nothing much as far as any roster changes so I am going to believe that the Avs will go with the same lines as we have seen the past few games with Pickard in net and SpenMart opening the bench door.
Picks might find some extra motivation being a Winnipeg native and I fully expect to see him at his best. The rest of the roster has been quote-worthy with a new player bemoaning team effort after every game. Most recently newly activated captain Gabriel Landeskog has made the distinction that it is not a lack of effort, but a lack of work ethic. Stormy times ahead perhaps.
The Avalanche have played the Jets 34 times since they became not the Atlanta Thrashers and hold a slight edge in overall record winning 16 of those games to Winnipeg’s 12 (the remainder being decided in all manners of loser point situations).
Should the Avs hope to win it would probably be best to keep a close eye on rookie sniper Patrick Laine who has scored 17 goals in his short 33 game career. Yeah, probably want to put a body on him.
Bold prediction: Pickard will overcome a lackluster offensive production from the Avalanche and the good guys will sneak out of Manitoba with a win and mild frostbite.