Open Thread: Colorado Avalanche vs. Ottawa Senators (7:00 p.m.)

SB Nation

The Avalanche have lost two consecutive contests for the first time since their four-game slide back in October and have lost straight in regulation for the first time all season ahead of tonight’s showdown

with the Ottawa Senators. This will mark the beginning of a 7-game homestand for the Avalanche, who look to get back into the win column in front of home fans yet again, where they have amassed a 14-game point streak. Will the streak continue, or does this Senators team have what it takes to end the run?

Colorado Avalanche: 31-4-7

The Opponent: Ottawa Senators 20-17-5

Time: 7:00 p.m. MT

Watch: Altitude, Altitude+, ESPN+

Listen: Altitude Sports Radio, 92.5 FM

Colorado Avalanche

The Avalanche can pretty quickly sum up why things went wrong on their most recent road trip. They saw four different players go down with injury in a matter of a week, including their starting netminder, captain, and top-pairing defenseman. Throw in a back-to-back where you start Scott Wedgewood in both games, and you have a recipe for disaster.

In truth, the Avalanche can afford to drop a few games as they still have a strong hold on the division, with the Dallas Stars nine points back with two games in hand. Moreover, the Avalanche can afford 8 more losses before the end of the season and still tie Boston’s wins record from 2022-23.

Keep a watchful eye on the power play this evening, with much of the discourse around this team centered on a group that is really good at 5-on-5 but laughably unsuccessful on the man advantage. At some point, the talent on the ice needs to make its mark, and I’ve been calling for progression to the mean, but in fairness, I’ve been calling for it for about a month now, and still, the power play unit looks as stale as the bag of chips your college roommate left in the pantry over winter break.

Projected Lineup:

Artturi Lehkonen — Nathan MacKinnon — Martin Necas
Valeri Nichushkin — Brock Nelson — Gavin Brindley
Ross Colton — Jack Drury — Victor Olofsson
Ivan Ivan — Parker Kelly — Zakhar Bardakov

Samuel Girard — Cale Makar
Josh Manson — Brent Burns
Ilya Solovyov — Sam Malinski

Scott Wedgewood
Trent Miner

Ottawa Senators

Ottawa Senators fans might be looking at this contest as a scheduled loss, as the Senators fell to the Utah Mammoth less than 24 hours ago. I have written plenty about the adverse effects of playing at altitude, and once again remind our MHH doctors that the second and third nights at altitude always hit harder.

All that said, I think this is shaping up more like a trap game to me. The Avalanche haven’t lost many games this season, but a large majority of said defeats have come at the hands of Eastern Conference foes. The Sens may be last in their division, but in the East, the standings are way tighter. To put things into perspective, Ottawa is just 10 points out of first place and last in their division. One point more than the gap between Colorado and Dallas at the top of the Central Division.