Game Day Preview: Colorado Avalanche host the Bruins in the Home Opener

The Avalanche take on the B’s tonight for their home opener at the Pepsi Center. After dismantling the Bruins 4-0 in Boston they look to continue their strong play on home ice.

Home ice advantage wasn’t particularly an advantage for the Avalanche last year, posting a 13-26-2 record at the Pepsi Center.

Meanwhile, the Bruins were one of the better teams on the road, registering a 21-14-6 record.

The Pepsi Center should see an energized crowd ready to forget the home woes of last year.

Avalanche Preview

With by far their most complete game coming in Boston, I don’t expect many changes will be made to the lineup. The defensive pairings meshed well and the mistakes were minimal.

The #FreeJost movement didn’t take long, as he was bumped up to center Landeskog and Compher. That line seemed to find early chemistry and I suspect we’ll see the same tonight. It would be nice to see Jost win a few more draws. Currently, his FO% is an abysmal 27.3%.

Soderberg will center Colin Wilson and Blake Comeau on what is turning out to be a pretty solid 4th line. Besides a few mistakes from Comeau this line was as good as any on the ice a few nights ago.

Forwards

Yakupov-Duchene-Kerfoot
Andrighetto-MacKinnon-Rantanen
Landeskog-Jost-Compher
Wilson-Soderberg-Comeau

On Monday, the Avs starting defencemen looked their best all year. For some unfathomable reason, Bednar came out in the 2nd with a completely different group only to change back towards the end of the 2nd/early 3rd.

Don’t fix what’s not broken...yet.

Defense

Zadorov-Johnson
Nemeth-Barrie
Bigras-Barberio

Bigras has continually impressed with his play through the first 3 games. His skating ability is loud and clear on the back-end. The young group will undoubtedly go through some growing pains this year but I like what I see from them so far. Playing in front of a lively crowd at the Can should give them a little extra boost of confidence.

Based on the morning skate, it looks like Mark Barberio will draw back into the lineup in place of Anton Lindholm.

* Update * - Official lineup is out.

Bruins Preview

It sounds like Bergeron still isn’t quite ready, to the relief of Avs fans.

The Bruins went scoreless on Monday but that wasn’t for a lack of trying. They out shot the Avalanche 29-23, but couldn’t quite solve Varlamov.

Brandon Carlo, a guy whose name we heard a lot over the offseason, led the B’s in shots with 4. Charlie McAvoy is a name to watch for, as well, with offensive prowess (but still some adjusting to do at the NHL level).

Boston is throwing caution to the wind, though, and tossing everything in the air for a brand-new lineup ahead of Wednesday night’s game. They’ll put out almost brand-new lines to compensate for the continued absence of Bergeron, Backes, and Acciari, adding Danton Heinen and potentially even Ryan White as the extra forward. He joined Boston earlier this week on a pro tryout agreement and could add some spark with an antagonistic style and crash-and-bang ideology heading towards the net.

Expect Boston to keep a close eye on Brad Marchand’s performance, as he’s been struggling with the absence of his usual center and a tenderfoot.

Forwards

Courtesy of Dailyfaceoff.com

Defense

The Starting Goalies

After shutting out the Bruins on Monday, Semyon Varlamov will be back in net for the Avs and though it hasn’t been confirmed, it looks like Tuukka Rask will look for some redemption in the Bruins net tonight.

How to Watch/Listen

Altitude Sports & NESN will be televising the game, puck drop at 7:30 MST. Puck is set to drop at 1 pm eastern time - nothing like a little morning hockey in the Rockies.

You can also listen to the game with our friend Marc Moser on Altitude Sports Radio 950AM.