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After losing in overtime on Friday night against St. Louis, the Colorado Avalanche head to Detroit looking to get back in the win column. Despite the loss, the Avalanche have gathered 18 of a possible 20 points over their past 10 games.
The Red Wings come into tonight’s game having won two straight - tied with the Senators for sixth in the Atlantic Division. There is some young talent in Detroit’s lineup, but they’re not a very good team - this is two points the Avs should have no problem with.
This is the start of a four game road trip for the Avalanche. Last season a trip east would have been something to be concerned about, but this year, Colorado has been great away from the Pepsi Center. Their nine road wins are second in the NHL behind only the Toronto Maple Leafs.
This is a game the Avalanche SHOULD win, but this is the NHL so we can’t take anything for granted.
Colorado Avalanche
The Avs are 8-0-2 in their past 10 games, and it’s mostly due to their lethal offense. Mikko Rantanen and Nathan MacKinnon still sit on top of the league’s scoring race - leading the team to the highest G/GP in the league.
Mikko leads the team in scoring, but it’s been MacKinnon who has spent the last month showing why he’s going to be one of the finalists for the Hart Trophy again this season.
Nathan MacKinnon has been named the NHL’s Second Star for November.
— Avalanche PR (@AvsPR) December 1, 2018
He led the league with 23 points (9g/14a) in the month.https://t.co/VxVUsoCjqG
No update from the team on Tyson Barrie, but he was skating this morning and it looks like he might be able to get back in the lineup tonight.
Tyson Barrie is on the ice for morning skate and looks like he might receive the green light for tonight’s game. #Avs #GoAvsGo pic.twitter.com/tI88i9l6qs
— Ryan S. Clark (@ryan_s_clark) December 2, 2018
Forwards
Gabriel Landeskog - Nathan MacKinnon - Mikko Rantanen
Tyson Jost - Alexander Kerfoot - Colin Wilson
Matt Nieto - Carl Soderberg - Matt Calvert
Sven Andrighetto - J.T. Compher - Gabriel Bourque
Defense
Samuel Girard - Erik Johnson
Nikita Zadorov - Ian Cole
Patrik Nemeth - Mark Barberio/Mark Alt/Tyson Barrie??
Detroit Red Wings
The Red Wings are a bad team that are winning too many games. In what is supposed to be a tank year, Detroit has gone on a few runs where they’ve won a bunch of games in a row - ruining their place at the bottom of the standings.
Dylan Larkin leads the Red Wings in scoring with 22 points and Andreas Athanasiou’s 11 goals are a team best. The young forwards have been decent this year but it’s rookie defender Dennis Cholowski that has been the most impressive for Detroit. The 20-year old has 4 goals and 12 points through his first 24 NHL games and he’s showing why he was a top-20 draft pick two years ago.
Forwards
Justin Adbelkader - Dylan Larkin - Anthony Mantha
Gustav Nyquist - Frans Nielsen - Andreas Athanasiou
Tyler Bertuzzi - Luke Glendening - Michael Rasmussen
Christoffer Ehn - Jacob de la Rose - Thomas Vanek
Niklas Kronwall - Mike Green
Dan DeKayser - Nick Jensen
Jonathan Ericsson - Dennis Cholowski
Starting Goalies
Nothing confirmed yet, but we are likely to see Semyon Varlamov vs Jimmy Howard tonight. both have been very solid this season with nine wins each and a sv% of .927 and .923 respectively.