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Just the Facts:
The Time: 10pm EST
The Place: Pepsi Center, Denver, Colorado
Place to Watch: NESN, Altitude if you’re really, and I mean really desperate.
Place to Listen: 98.5 The Sports Hub, Altitude Sports Radio 92.5FM
Opposing SBNation Blog: Mile High Hockey
Know your Enemy:
- Nathan MacKinnon and Gabriel Landeskog lead the Avs in goals. MacKinnon also happens to be the sole forward in the NHL who leads his team in TOI, with an average of about 22 minutes a game.
- The point-leader on the Avs, and in the entire NHL in general, is Mikko Rantanen, who has 26, the vast majority of whom are assists. Patrice Bergeron is right behind him with 25.
- Alex Kerfoot is the only shot attempt-positive player on the Avs, though they are far more of a team that relies on their stars to basically do all the producing. Surely there are no parallels to be made here.
- Well, the big difference on that is that the Avs are still very bad at producing shot-attempts, quality shots, or shots in general. Boston has lagged behind a bit this year, but they’re still in the black. The Avs can’t say they’re like that.
- Semyon Varlamov is probably in net for the Avs, as he’s been pretty good in net so far, with a .929 SV% and a .921 xSV%. The guy behind him...well, he’s definitely there in case Varlamov gets hurt.
Preview:
Boston meets Colorado in an interesting point in their season. A three-way tie for second place existed not 24 hours ago with the B’s, Leafs, and Sabres all with 22 points. The Sabres just shut out the Lightning last night, the Leafs crushed the Kings last night, and the pressure is now on the B’s, who are rolling after a reasonably successful homestand, have to go now and prove they can hang.
The Avs meanwhile, would very much like to say they’re better than the Anaheim Ducks and the Schedule I narcotic known as Carlyle Hockey, and also cement their position in the western wildcard, as getting into the top 3 of Central teams is in their grasp...but it would be a tenuous grasp at that, as the last team in that group is Winnipeg.
It’s sure to be a fun matchup, so brew some coffee and tune in to find out what happens!