After an absolutely dominating performance and win against the Edmonton Oilers last night, the Colorado Avalanche head into Vancouver to take on the Canucks in the second leg of a back-to-back. This will be the first of three regular-season matchups between these two teams.
Last night’s game was arguably a measuring-stick game for the Avalanche as they took on the back-to-back Western Conference Champions, and they were undoubtedly up to the task, winning by a final score of 9-1 over the disappointing Edmonton Oilers. Four different Colorado players had competing hat-trick bids on the night, those players being Nathan MacKinnon, Cale Makar, Jack Drury, and Parker Kelly. Not only did your superstar players show up and show out last night, but so did your depth players.
Everything seemed to go right for Colorado, except for a couple of things: going 0/7 on the power play and Gabe Landeskog having yet another goal called back for being offside were the two main things that didn’t go their way. The second line also didn’t get in on the fun with both Val Nichushkin and Brock Nelson going pointless. But at that point, you’re really splitting hairs over things that went wrong in a 9-1 win. Tonight, they look to earn another two points in the standings against the Vancouver Canucks, who will also not have fresh legs in this game either.
Artturi Lehkonen – Nathan MacKinnon – Martin Necas
Ross Colton – Brock Nelson – Valeri Nichushkin
Gabriel Landeskog – Jack Drury – Victor Olofsson
Parker Kelly – Zakhar Bardakov – Gavin Brindley
Devon Toews – Cale Makar
Josh Manson – Brent Burns
Jack Ahcan – Sam Malinski
Mackenzie Blackwood
Scott Wedgewood
The Canucks are also on the second leg of a back-to-back tonight, as they are coming off a 4-3 win against the Columbus Blue Jackets. Brock Boeser ended up scoring the game-winning goal last night, as he was able to put a bit of a knuckle puck past the Columbus goaltender. Tonight, Vancouver’s looking to hopefully build up some momentum and string together a handful of wins to make their way up the standings in the Pacific Division. Currently, they sit in 6th place in their division and are tied in points with the Los Angeles Kings and the Edmonton Oilers. The Canucks have time to make a push towards the top of the division, as it is still November, but this is a team that likely wants to start racking up points now for a playoff bid.
Evander Kane – Elias Pettersson – Conor Garland
Brock Boeser – Lukas Reichel – Kiefer Sherwood
Drew O’Connor – Aatu Rary – Jake DeBrusk
Arshdeep Bains – Max Sasson – Linus Karlsson
Quinn Hughes – Filip Hronek
Marcus Pettersson – Tyler Myers
Elias Nils Pettersson – Tom Willander
Jiri Patera
Kevin Lankinen
For both teams the starting goaltender is up in the air especially as each are on a back-to-back and therefore held no morning skate. The easy assumption is each goaltender who didn’t play last night will take the net but both teams have experienced mysterious surroundings regarding their stating netminder. For the Avalanche, Makenzie Blackwood should get the start but after making his first start of the year last weekend in San Jose he hasn’t seen the net again. Now the truth will have to come out if it was just extra rest or something more. For Vancouver, Thatcher Demko was in net for an overtime win against Nashville on Monday but the Canucks since then have recalled an emergency goaltender. Demko skated yesterday according to reports so he may be prepared to make the start.
