Colorado Avalanche Game Day: Matinee with rival Minnesota

Today the Colorado Avalanche host the Minnesota Wild at Ball Arena for some lunchtime rivalry action. Both teams look like playoff teams, and both are among the Central Divisions’ best in terms of standings.

COLORADO AVALANCHE

The Avalanche are coming off their first shut-out of the season and are looking to extend their home winning streak to fourteen games. Colorado looks poised to separate from the rest of the division at the top of the standings, especially now that the lineup is a healthy one. They lead the division with fifty-one points in thirty-five games played. Colorado Also has three and four games in hand on the third and second-ranked teams, respectively.

Colorado currently leads the western conference in points, leads the NHL in scoring and comeback victories, and tied the franchise record for fewest games to fifty points with the win on Saturday. (35 games)

The Nazem Kadri hype train is full steam ahead as he left his mark again with a goal in the shut-out win against Arizona on Saturday.

He is all but a shoo-in for the NHL’s All-Star game in Las Vegas, but just in case, cast your vote here: https://www.nhl.com/all-star-ballot

FORWARDS

Gabriel Landeskog - Nathan MacKinnon - Mikko Rantanen

Valeri Nichushkin - Nazem Kadri - Andre Burakovsky

JT Compher - Alex Newhook - Nicolas Aube-Kubel

Mikhail Maltsev - Tyson Jost - Logan O’Connor

DEFENDERS

Devon Toews - Cale Makar

Jack Johnson - Samuel Girard

Kurtis MacDermid - Erik Johnson

MINNESOTA WILD

The Wild have had another good season so far in 2021-22 and find themselves among the top five point-getters in the Western Conference.

Kirill Kaprizov gave Wild fans a bit of a scare in the offseason by claiming he would return to Russia if specific terms weren’t met. Fortunately for Minnesota, the two sides were able to make a deal. Kaprisov takes Minnesota from playoff team to possible contender and is the type of player that Minnesota fans have never seen in green.

FORWARDS

Kirill Kaprizov - Ryan Hartman - Mats Zuccarello

Matthew Boldy - Frederick Gaudreau - Kevin Fiala

Jordan Greenway - Victor Rask - Marcus Foligno

Connor Dewar - Nico Sturm - Brandon Duhaime

DEFENDERS

Jordie Benn - Mathew Dumba

Dmitry Kulikov - Alex Goligoski

Jon Merrill - Calen Addison

GOALTENDERS

Neither starter has been confirmed for today’s matchup. However, it is assumed that the Avalanche will go with starter Darcy Kuemper. He is coming off his best performance and first shut-out for the Avalanche. Darcy looks to gain momentum and silence doubters heading into the playoffs.

The Wild will likely start Kaapo Kahkonen, who hasn’t allowed more than three goals in his last six starts. He has won four of his previous five starts and is 7-2-1 this season.