Open Thread: Colorado Avalanche vs. Vegas Golden Knights (7:00 p.m.)

The Avalanche aim to take a 2-0 season series lead over the Vegas Golden Knights tonight at Ball Arena in Denver, CO. These two clubs faced each other early in the regular season. A lot has happened for both organizations since late October, including Colorado weathering a monsoon of injuries and Vegas putting the league on notice by winning nine straight. How will tonight’s matchup shake out?

The Colorado Avalanche has had a tough go of it as of late. At least in terms of results. They’ve blown a couple of third-period leads, have come out flat too many times, and are amidst a three-game losing streak. Something that only happened twice last season has now occurred three times just three months into the 2022-23 campaign. Still, if you take a deeper look at what is happening in Colorado with a score of injured players, one can’t help but be impressed with how they’ve managed to hang on in the standings. There are some players returning from injury which include Martin Kaut and Darren Helm.

The Vegas Golden Knights are starting to look like the team that made the Stanley Cup Final in their first year as an organization. To say they have gone the unconventional route would be putting it lightly. After essentially gaming the expansion draft system, they have acquired and redistributed some severe talent and hope to make a cup run this season with Jack Eichel and Mark Stone at the helm.

Projected Lineup:

Artturi Lehkonen — Nathan MacKinnon — Mikko Rantanen
Evan Rodrigues — J.T. Compher — Logan O’Connor
Andrew Cogliano — Ben Meyers — Denis Malgin
Alex Newhook — Darren Helm — Martin Kaut

Devon Toews — Cale Makar
Samuel Girard — Erik Johnson
Andreas Englund — Brad Hunt

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