The Colorado Avalanche are back home at Ball Arena Friday against their division rival, the Winnipeg Jets. The team returns after a 4-game road trip where they went 3-1, taking care of business for the most part, aside from the Presidents Day matchup against the Boston Bruins. Despite this unfavorable upset, the Avs remain in 1st place in the entire league. Once again playing nothing short of exceptional day-in and day-out.
After a fantastic playoff-like win in Vegas, the team headed off to Buffalo where they had some fits, especially against the Sabre’s Tage Thompson who recorded a hatrick. However, the squad was able to look past this offensive outpour by Tage by coming away with another win. For the most part, the scoring was spread out resulting in an output of 5 goals. Nathan Mackinon, J.T. Compher, Nazem Kadri, Alex Newhook, and Mikko Rantanen all scored for the Avs to secure the 5-3 win. The game was closer than the Avs would’ve liked, but they’ll take the victory.
The next destination for the Avs was against the Boston Bruins on Presidents Day. The Avalanche played arguably the worst game this season allowing a rampage of 45 shots against. The Bruins dominated in every aspect of the game pulling off the 5-1 upset. Bruins David Pastrnak continued his fabulous campaign by adding 2 goals and an assist to his season numbers. Nathan MacKinnon picked up his 12th of the year as he was the only one to score for the Avs on the man advantage. These games will happen from time to time and the Avs just need to flush it.
The finale of the road trip was against the exciting Detroit Red Wings, who have 2 candidates for the Calder Trophy, Moritz Seider and Lucas Raymond. This was a great opportunity for the Avs to bounce back which they absolutely did, setting the tone early with 2 first period goals by Captain Gabriel Landeskog and Tyson Jost for an early 2-0 lead. The Wings would respond in the 2nd period, but it was quickly shut down as Nazem Kadri and Val Nichushkin added to the tally to make it 4-1. The Red Wings would go on to score one more time, but ultimately fell short after an empty net goal by the Captain for his 2nd of the game to make it 5-2. This was a phenomenal bounce back win to show that they are the best team in the league, despite one tough game.
After this 4-game road trip, the Avs will return home again for one game before going on to Vegas once again the next day This will once again be a wonderful test to see how they play Vegas at the Fortress for the 2nd time in 2 weeks. Not only is the team on a busy schedule, but GM Joe Sakic has also been busy looking for potential trade partners as he’s been connecting with many other GMs around the league. They’re in a win now mode, so they want to get as much skill as possible to help secure a cup. This is truly a great story line to follow as the trade deadline continues to approach each day.
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