Colorado Avalanche Game Day: California dreaming with the Ducks

Tonight the Colorado Avalanche pay a visit to the Honda Center for a road game against the Anaheim Ducks. Colorado is fresh off an emotional SO win over the Minnesota Wild, and the Ducks are coming into tonight’s contest having just been shut out by the Chicago Blackhawks.

COLORADO AVALANCHE

The Avalanche are sending three players and a coach to the All-Star Game in Las Vegas now that forward Nazem Kadri has claimed the Central Divisions Last Man In selection. They could be sending five or more if the All-Star Game worked differently, as both Mikko Rantanen and Gabriel Landeskog are having another fantastic year as well.

Keep an eye on Kurtis MacDermid and Nicolas Deslauriers since they fight virtually every time their teams meet. As of late, MacDermid is in rare form, making Jordan Greenway pay for his collision with Darcy Kuemper and logging 23 PIMs and one assist in his last three games.

FORWARDS

Gabriel Landeskog - Nathan MacKinnon - Mikko Rantanen

Andre Burakovsky - Nazem Kadri - Logan O’Connor

Nicolas Aube-Kubel - Alex Newhook - JT Compher

Tyson Jost - Mikhail Maltsev - Kiefer Sherwood

DEFENDERS

Devon Toews - Cale Makar

Jack Johnson - Samuel Girard

Kurtis MacDermid - Erik Johnson

ANAHEIM DUCKS

Head Coach Jared Bednar was interviewed on Moser, Lombardi & Kane this morning and complimented the California squads. It seems as though he believes it’s no longer the quick win streak it used to be, and I’d agree. Both California teams typically have great goaltending. John Gibson has stolen games from the Avalanche in years past, and now Cal Peterson has taken the helm in LA, so nothing has changed.

The Ducks have played a spirited game in front of netminder John Gibson so far this season. Former DU standout and NHL All-Star Troy Terry is having a career year. He has thirty-six points in thirty-eight games basically making him a point-per-game player. Who can forget the possible goal of the year (not as good as Makar’s) featuring a lob from Trevor Zegras to a bunt goal from Sonny Milano?

FORWARDS

Rickard Rakell - Ryan Getzlaf - Sam Carrick

Maxime Comtois - Trevor Zegras - Vinni Lettieri

Derek Grant - Isac Lundstrom - Jakob Silfverberg

Nicolas Deslauriers - Sam Steel - Buddy Robinson

DEFENDERS

Brendan Guhle - Josh Manson

Hampus Lindholm - Jamie Drysdale

Jacob Larsson - Kevin Shattenkirk

NOTE: John Gibson, Troy Terry, Josh Manson, Simon Benoit, Cam Fowler, and Anthony Stolarz are all in the NHL’s COVID Protocol.

GOALTENDERS

Colorado seems to have dodged a bullet after their matinee win over the Wild. Darcy Kuemper will get the start against the LA Kings on Thursday.

That means Pavel Francouz will get his scheduled start tonight against the Ducks. Francouz looked solid in relief of Kuemper on Monday and will try to keep that rolling, coming in with a 2.94GAA and a .902 SV percentage.

As of right now, John Gibson is in COVID protocol. We can expect the Ducks to start Lukas Dostal if that stays the same. Dostal is twenty-one years old and has just two starts as a National Leaguer and has also come in as relief once. He is one and one in those contests giving up 2.53 GAA and posting a .929 SV percentage.