Colorado Avalanche Gameday: Taking the win streak on the road

The Colorado Avalanche spent Thanksgiving traveling down to Dallas to face the Dallas Stars Friday night. While away from their families to face the stars, it’s not the first time it’s happened. Last time these two teams met, they were in the bubble in Edmonton in the second round of the playoffs. Little explanation is needed of what happened then.

Colorado Avalanche

Simply put, the Avs are looking for redemption. A series full of injuries, misfortune and a Game 7 OT winner from the Stars, was all the Avs needed to fall to their demise then. The Avs are looking to get back on their Central Division rivals in a big way.

The Avalanche are on fire at the moment. They ride a six game winning streak, scoring at least four goals in each game and have outscored opponents 36-15 in that span. It is an impressive run, all without Nathan MacKinnon at the helm on the first line.

Impressive in his absence has been Nazem Kadri, who will look to continue his impressive run of form. He rides a 10-game point streak, with 21 points in said run. He will lead the offense again, as the only change from Wednesday’s 5-2 win against the Anaheim Ducks sees Kiefer Sherwood return for Kurtis MacDermid.

Landskog-Rantanen-LOC

Nichushkin-Kadri-Burakovsky

Jost-Newhook-NAK

Helm-Megna-Sherwood

Toews-Makar

J. Johnson-Girard

E. Johnson-Murray

Dallas Stars

The Stars are in a solid run of their own right now too. They have won four of their last five, winning 4-1 against the Edmonton Oilers on Tuesday night. The Stars have had the Avs’s number as of late too, going 5-1-0 in their last six games against the club.

The Stars are wrapping up their home stand and this is their first of a back-to-back similar to the Avs. Miro Hiskanen has been the story for the Stars from defense. Similar to Cale Makar, he has had a stellar opening month and a half to the season, recording an assist on Tuesday to get his 14th point in 17 games.

Here is their projected lineup, from Defending Big D, our corresponding SBNation website covering the Stars:

Robertson-Hintz-Pavelski

Rafll-Benn-Gurianov

Kiviranta-Seguin-Glendening

Peterson-Faksa-Radulov

Lindell-Hiskanen

Suter-Klingberg

Sekera-Hakanpaa

Goaltenders

Both of these teams have back-to-backs this weekend. Goaltending will look different at least for the Stars tonight, as they go with Jake Oettinger. The Avs will have a familiar face in net in Darcy Kuemper. He’s gotten new skate blade holders so that his skate blade will not fall out in play again, hopefully.