Colorado Avalanche Game Day: Road contest against Desert Dogs

The Colorado Avalanche will head to Glendale for a matchup with the Arizona Coyotes tonight. The Coyotes are a struggling squad and come in having just lost to the Winnipeg Jets. Colorado won in comeback fashion (again) in their last game in which they faced the New York Islanders.

COLORADO AVALANCHE

The Avalanche find themselves on another winning streak and hope to push the current one to five games with a victory tonight. We have seen Colorado come back so many times this season it’s tough to feel like this team is ever out of a game. That said, they will look to tighten things up from the start as we near the playoffs.

Avalanche forward Nazem Kadri is still among the NHL’s top point-getters with just twenty-eight games remaining, meaning he has consistently logged more than a point-per-game this season. I have to wonder if he is effectively playing himself off this squad since he’s playing so well in a contract year. Based on his success this season, another team will likely pay him top dollar to come in and be the number one center. I suppose we will cross that bridge when we get there.

FORWARDS

Andre Burakovsky - Nathan MacKinnon - Mikko Rantanen

Gabriel Landeskog - Nazem Kadri - Alex Newhook

Tyson Jost - JT Compher - Logan O’Connor

Kurtis MacDermid - Darren Helm - Nicolas Aube-Kubel

DEFENDERS

Devon Toews - Cale Makar

Jack Johnson - Samuel Girard

Ryan Murray - Erik Johnson

ARIZONA COYOTES

As previously mentioned, the Coyotes are one of the NHL’s struggling franchises both on and off the ice. They’ve become a meme on hockey Twitter after announcing games held at Arizona State’s arena that only holds about 5,000 seats and their record speaks for itself.

It’s never safe to underestimate a squad, especially one with nothing to lose. Good teams don’t play down to groups like the Arizona Coyotes but expect the Yotes to give the league’s best, their best shot.

FORWARDS

Clayton Keller - Travis Boyd - Nick Schmaltz

Matias Maccelli - Alex Galchenyuk - Phil Kessel

Nick Ritchie - Barret Hayton - Loui Eriksson

Antoine Roussel - Christian Fischer - Lawson Crouse

DEFENDERS

Shayne Gostisbehere - Dysin Mayo

Janis Moser - Anton Stralman

Vladislav Kolyachonok - Jakob Chychrun

GOALTENDERS

The Avalanche will start goaltender Pavel Francouz tonight in Glendale. Francouz is coming off back-to-back wins against the Jets and Red Wings and will look to make it three straight with a victory this evening. He comes with a GAA of 2.41 and SV% of .921.

Karel Vejmelka will get the nod for the Arizona Coyotes. This year, Veselka has had a tough go of it behind a not-so-good squad. He comes in with a GAA of 3.51 and SV% of .900. Those statistics put him among the worst goaltenders in the league that has played thirty or more games.