Game 68 Preview: Coyotes @ Avalanche

With 15 games remaining in the season, the Avalanche have worked themselves into a rough situation. In two games against the wildcard teams ahead of them, the Avs have failed to even register a point. Now the team finds themselves sitting two points out of the final wildcard spot and struggling to finish games. If there is one positive for the Avalanche, it's their schedule. Six of the team's next seven games are against non-playoff teams. If the Avs want to get back into the playoff picture, they have to take advantage of these next few games.

The first of those non-playoff teams the Avs will play are the Arizona Coyotes. The Avs and Coyotes made noise on deadline day when Mikkel Boedker was sent to Colorado for a package that included 36-year-old Alex Tanguay. Tanguay was productive in his Coyotes debut, scoring two goals and adding an assist in a win against the Panthers. With the Coyotes unlikely to do much as far as a playoff run, Tanguay and the Coyotes will look to play spoiler and keep the Avs on their downward trend.

LINES

Landeskog-MacKinnon-Boedker

Grigorenko-Duchene-Iginla

Matthias-Soderberg-Comeau

McLeod-Mitchell-Skille

Beauchemin-Johnson

Holden-Barrie

Bigras-Bodnarchuk

Varlamov

Pickard

NOTES

- Mikkel Boedker had the game winning goal for the Coyotes last time these two teams met.

- Tanguay had as many goals in his first game with the Coyotes as he had in his last 41 with the Avalanche.

- The Coyotes win against the Panthers ended a seven game losing streak.

GAME INFO

Game time: 7pm MT

TV: ALT