The Colorado Avalanche are bound for the playoffs for the ninth consecutive season!
Today, their final road swing through the Eastern Conference sees them in a brunchtime visit to Washington, D.C. to face the Washington Capitals in a bid to sustain their Central Division lead.
Colorado Avalanche (45-13-10)
The Opponent: Washington Capitals (35-27-8)
Time: 10:30 A.M. MDT/12:30 P.M. EDT
Watch: ALT, ALT+ (Avalanche Local Broadcast Area), MNMT (Washington Capitals Broadcast Area Only), NHL Network, NHL Center Ice (Outside Regional Broadcast Areas
– US), SN1, SN+, TVAS, TVAS+, NHL Centre Ice (Canadian Broadcast Areas)
Listen: Altitude Sports Radio KKSE-FM 92.5 FM
Colorado Avalanche
The Colorado Avalanche got their four game road trip off to a good start on Friday evening, as they defeated the Chicago Blackhawks by a score of 4-1 at United Center. All of Colorado’s big guns factored into the victory, as Martin Nečas, Brock Nelson, Nazem Kadri, and Valeri Nichushkin all tallied goals in the contest. Nathan MacKinnon’s three assist night helped power Colorado’s big guns in the victory as he continues his chase for the Art Ross scoring title; coming into today’s contest, MacKinnon’s 114 points sees him two points behind Edmonton’s Connor McDavid (116) and four points behind Tampa’s Nikita Kucherov (118). The win snapped Colorado’s three game losing streak, and helped them maintain their position as the undisputed leader across the Central Division, Western Conference, and entire League standings.
With the win over Chicago, the Avalanche clinched their ninth consecutive postseason berth, and became the first team in the NHL this season to reach the 100 point mark in the standings. Although they’ve enjoyed being ahead of the rest of the League by a healthy margin throughout the season, that lead has diminished as the regular season marches towards its conclusion. The annoyingly persistent Dallas Stars have narrowed the lead the Avalanche have over their Central Division rivals in recent weeks, but Colorado did get some help from the Minnesota Wild on Saturday afternoon as they defeated Dallas by a 2-1 overtime decision at Grand Casino Arena. The Avalanche currently hold a three point lead over Dallas, but today’s contest in Washington serves as Colorado’s game in hand in the standings. A win today will increase their lead to five points, with both teams having thirteen games remaining on their regular season schedules.
Head Coach Jared Bednar acknowledged the accomplishment after the win in Chicago on Friday. “We like what we’re doing right now. Obviously, there’s ebbs and flows to the season, but I think, to this point in the season, if you look at it as a whole, that we’ve put ourselves in a good spot here. We feel good about the way we’re playing. Making the playoffs is the first step to getting to where you want to go, so we’re pretty happy about that.”
Bednar may opt to return to Mackenzie Blackwood, who stopped 19 of 20 shots on Friday against Chicago, for today’s contest. Scott Wedgewood, who continues leading the League for the lowest goals against average (2.19), and now leads the League in save percentage (.916), could get the start on Tuesday in Pittsburgh should Bednar decide on starting Blackwood today.
Prior to leaving for Chicago, Bednar indicated that Ross Colton, Gabe Landeskog, Artturi Lehkonen, and Logan O’Connor would accompany the Avs on the road trip, and that all four were projected to return to the lineup at some point as the trip progresses. None of them were in the lineup on Friday evening in Chicago, and at the time of this writing, there are no updates on whether any of them would make an appearance against Washington today. However, Ivan Ivan, who was in action on Friday in Chicago, was reassigned to Loveland after the contest, which may indicate that at least one player may return to action today.
Both Colorado and Washington previously met on January 19 at Ball Arena. MacKinnon scored twice, Nečas had a goal and an assist, and Scott Wedgewood stopped 22 of 24 shots in that contest as the Avalanche skated to a 5-2 victory. Today’s game wraps up the season series against Washington.
Projected Lineup
Forwards:
Valeri Nichushkin – Nathan MacKinnon – Martin Nečas
Nazem Kadri – Brock Nelson – Nicolas Roy
Ross Colton – Jack Drury – Gavin Brindley
Joel Kiviranta – Parker Kelly – Zakhar Bardakov
Defense:
Cale Makar – Sam Girard
Josh Manson – Brent Burns
Brett Kulak – Sam Malinski
Between the Pipes:
Mackenzie Blackwood
Scott Wedgewood
Washington Capitals
Since their previous meeting against Colorado in January, Washington has hovered around the .500 mark, having won five of their final nine games prior to the Olympic break and six of their previous eleven games upon returning to action after the pause. As a result, Washington currently sits in sixth place in the Metropolitan Division, and are six points back of the final wild card spot, currently occupied by the Detroit Red Wings, in the Eastern Conference.
With three teams ahead of them as the season winds down, Washington’s chances of making the playoffs are slim. The trade deadline on March 6 saw the departures of Nic Dowd to the Vegas Golden Knights and cornerstone defenseman John Carlson to the Anaheim Ducks, and the acquisition of forward David Kampf from the Vancouver Canucks and defenseman Timothy Liljegren from the San Jose Sharks. Since the deadline, Washington has gone 4-2-1, but comes into today’s contest against Colorado having won three of their four previous games. Their most recent victory came this past Friday against the New Jersey Devils by a score of 2-1.
The debut of Cole Hutson this past Wednesday saw the rookie defenseman score his first career goal with Washington. While his older brother Lane may have more name recognition across the League due to his play for the Montréal Canadiens, Capitals fans certainly may feel optimistic about what he can bring to the Washington blue line, especially after scoring in his debut. The loss of Carlson may certainly sting, but the future lynchpin on defense may already be right there in Hutson if his development follows a similar trajectory to Lane’s.
As noted in this space during the first preview article featuring Washington and Colorado, if you were asked who was leading Washington in goals, you’d probably say it was Alex Ovechkin. As it was back then, it is still Tom Wilson, but Ovechkin now shares the goal scoring lead with Wilson (25), and the lead in team points (52). Wilson, who was out with injury for the previous outing against Colorado, earned a silver medal with Team Canada along with goaltender Logan Thompson. Defenseman Jakob Chychrun is third among Washington skaters in points (51), second in goal scoring among all skaters (23, tied with Aliaksei Protas), and third in assists (28).
Thompson has won his three of his past five starts, and will likely start today against Colorado. He ranks third in goals against average among goaltenders (2.36), and fourth in save percentage (.915).
Today’s game against Colorado wraps up a four game home stand at Capital One Arena. Washington will begin a three game road trip out west on Tuesday.
Projected Lineup
Forwards:
Alex Ovechkin – Dylan Strome – Anthony Beauvillier
Aliaksei Protas – Pierre-Luc Dubois – Tom Wilson
Connor McMichael – Justin Sourdif – Ryan Leonard
Brandon Duhaime – Hendrix Lapierre – Ethen Frank
Defense:
Martin Fehérváry – Rasmus Sandin
Jakob Chychrun – Trevor van Reimsdyk
Cole Hutson – Matt Roy
Between the Pipes:
Logan Thompson
Charlie Lindgren
