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The Colorado Avalanche and New Jersey Devils will meet tonight at Ball Arena for an evening contest. The Devils have won two in a row and are fresh off a 6-2 victory over the Arizona Coyotes. Colorado is looking to follow up a nine-goal win with an eighth straight victory in the second half of a back-to-back.
Colorado Avalanche
Last night, the Avalanche made a statement by walking all over the LA Kings. They dominated a team that was desperate for a win and showcased their catalog of talented players.
The TNT broadcast spent a lot of time during the pregame talking about Roman Josi taking the lead for the Norris Trophy, but Cale Makar took that personally. He put up a casual four points, effectively conveying a “not so fast” message to Biz and the rest of the panel. If Makar doesn’t win the award, it won’t take anything away from his record-breaking season.
MacKinnon makes it 7-2 after a beautiful stretch pass from Makar! #GoAvsGo pic.twitter.com/0MVrNFjnmb
— x-Mile High Hockey (@MileHighHockey) April 14, 2022
Projected Lineup
Andre Burakovsky — Nathan MacKinnon — Mikko Rantanen
Artturi Lehkonen — JT Compher — Valeri Nichushkin
Alex Newhook — Nico Sturm — Nicolas Aube-Kubel
Andrew Cogliano — Darren Helm — Logan O’Connor
Devon Toews — Cale Makar
Josh Manson — Samuel Girard
Bo Byram — Erik Johnson (Jack Johnson)
Note: Head coach Jared Bednar seems to be looking at both Erik and Jack Johnson heading into the playoffs. Look for them to swap on the second of a back-to-back.
New Jersey Devils
The Devils are playing for pride this late in the season. They are on the outside looking in and won’t be a playoff squad. That doesn’t mean there isn’t plenty to be excited about in Jersey. They still have some young and skilled players to develop and should be a solid squad soon.
Projected Lineup
Yegor Sharangovich - Nico Hischier - Fabian Zetterlund
Tomas Tatar - Dawson Mercer - Jesper Bratt
Pavel Zacha - Jesper Boqvist - Janne Kuokkanen
AJ Greer - Michael McLoed - Nathan Bastian
Ryan Graves - Damon Severson
Kevin Bahl - Dougie Hamilton
Ty Smith - P.K. Subban
Goaltending
The Avalanche will go with backup Pavel Francouz with Kuemper playing just last night. Frankie has been lights out as a backup and is looking for his fifteenth win of the season.
It will likely be Nico Daws between the pipes for the Devils. Daws has a sub .900 save percentage and has 10 earned victories on the season. Can he withstand the pressure of facing the high-flying Avalanche?
Note: This isn’t related to tonight’s game but here is my favorite part of the national broadcast from last night.
Josh Manson is mic’d up and he explains that in Anaheim they give fans free Chick-fil-A for five or six goals. As for Avalanche fans “they’d be eating a lot of chicken.” #GoAvsGo pic.twitter.com/64cjZVl8el
— Adrian Hernandez (@AdoHernandez27) April 14, 2022
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