Colorado Avalanche Gameday: Trying to streak against the Habs

After Wednesday night’s clash between the Colorado Avalanche and Montreal Canadiens, the five-game homestand is complete. Their first matchup of the season is the last game before the Avs hit the road for two straight games. The last time these two played last year, the Avs won 3-2 in OT on January 22.

Colorado is currently 2-2 on this homestand, the longest of the season. The wins have come in some good performances, against the Nashville Predators and most recently the New York Islanders. They’ll look to end it on a good note.

Colorado Avalanche

As stated above, the most recent win for the Avs came against the Isles Monday night. It took 65 minutes and a shootout to finally put a singular goal in the net thanks to a filthy move by Evan Rodrigues.

Despite the win and the return of Kurtis MacDermid, Colorado did lose another player to injury. Andrew Cogliano took a hard fall into the boards shoulder-first and immediately went off the ice. He is projected to miss a couple of games, but it isn’t anything too severe. I’m hopeful Jean-Luc Foudy comes back up (so we’ll say he’s in for now, but we will see when the AHL transaction log is updated.)

Meanwhile, Nathan MacKinnon returned to the ice for the first time since his injury. He did some work with skills coach Shawn Allard but still is on his projected timeline according to Jared Bednar. While both names will be out, the hope is that Rodrigues and Mikko Rantanen continue to lead to the line as the Avs go for three straight wins.

Projected Lines

Artturi Lehkonen (62) - J.T. Compher (37) - Mikko Rantanen (96)
Alex Newhook (18) - Evan Rodrigues (9) - Valeri Nichushkin (13)
Jean-Luc Foudy (93) - Ben Meyers (59) - Logan O’Connor (25)
Kurtis MacDermid (56) - Martin Kaut (61) - Jacob MacDonald (26)

Cale Makar (8) - Devon Toews (7)
Sam Girard (49) - Erik Johnson (6)
Andreas Englund (88) - Brad Hunt (17)

Montreal Canadiens

The Habs come into Ball Arena coming off a hard-fought 3-2 overtime win at Mullet Arena, home of the Arizona Coyotes Monday night. For Montreal, this is game two of a seven-game road trip leading into early January as they look to get any point they can get.

Surprisingly, despite their struggles, the Habs do currently sit at .500, thanks to a hot start but sluggish December. This is thanks to their first line, who have been providing all year long lead by new captain Nick Suzuki.

The first line includes a face Avs fans are familiar with thanks to playing him a bunch in the Central Division: young Kirby Dach. In a big trade which happened at the NHL Draft, Dach left the Windy City and the also struggling Chicago Blackhawks looking for new blood with the Habs. He’ll get a chance to go at the Avs once again as Montreal goes for a second straight win.

Projected Lines

Cole Caufield (22) - Nick Suzuki (14) - Josh Anderson (17)
Juraj Slafkovsky (20) - Kirby Dach (77) - Jonathan Drouin (27)
Evgenii Dadonov (63) - Christian Dvorak (28) - Mike Hoffman (68)
Anthony Richard (90) - Jake Evans (71) - Joel Armia (40)

Joel Edmundson (44) - Kaiden Guhle (21)
Jordan Harris (54) - Johnathan Kovacevic (26)
Arber Xhekaj (72) - Chris Wideman (6)

Goaltenders

With the Avs swapping who plays in net every two games, it could be Pavel Francouz coming in for the first time since healing up from illness. For the Habs, it should be their usual number-one netminder in Jake Allen.