Gameday and trade deadline day, what could go wrong? Tonight, the Colorado Avalanche cap off what has been a wild week, no pun intended, with a game against the Minnesota Wild tonight here in Denver. This is the second of four regular-season matchups between these two clubs, with Colorado taking the first game by a final score of 3-2 on November 24.
Colorado Avalanche (39-20-5)
The Avalanche come into this game off of a 7-2 victory over the Detroit Red Wings, who they played on Wednesday night. Cale Makar netted his first career hat trick in that game, and Nathan MacKinnon and Mikko Rantanen each ended up with four point nights of their own. However, as this past week was trade deadline week, that victory hasn’t really been the talk of the town when it comes to Colorado lately.
On Wednesday, Colorado made a big splash by trading with the Philadelphia Flyers to aquire Sean Walker, and the Buffalo Sabres to aquire Casey Mittelstadt. But the front office weren’t done just yet. On the heels of those aquisitons, yesterday the Avalanche went out and aquired both Brandon Duhaime from the Minnesota Wild, and Yakov Trenin from the Nashville Predators. The trade deadline is today at 1:00 p.m. MT, so Colorado could make another move before that time.
Let’s get back to the hockey game that’s being played tonight though. Colorado is catching Minnesota on the second leg of their back-to-back, as the Wild played in Arizona last night and ultimately won by a final score of 5-2. All of the new aquisitions are expected to make their Avalanche debuts tonight, it should be Alexandar Georgiev in net, and Valeri Nichushkin is expected to make his much anticipated return to the lineup as well here tonight.
Projected lines
Artturi Lehkonen (62) – Nathan MacKinnon (29) – Mikko Rantanen (96)
Jonathan Drouin (27) – Casey Mittelstatd (37) – Valeri Nichushkin (13)
Miles Wood (28) – Ross Colton (20) – Zach Parise (9)
Brandon Duhaime (12) – Andrew Cogliano (11) – Yakov Trenin (15)
Devon Toews (7) – Cale Makar (8)
Samuel Girard (49) – Josh Manson (42)
Jack Johnson (3) – Sean Walker (26)
Alexandar Georgiev (40)
Minnesota Wild (30-27-6)
As previously mentioned, Minnesota comes into Ball Arena tonight on the second leg of their back-to-back. They concluded their first game on this back-to-back with a 5-2 victory over the Arizona Coyotes last night. The Wild currently sit seven points out of the second wild card spot in the Western Conference, and while they could end up making a push for that wild card spot, the competition is tough. Nashville and Las Vegas are both currently occupying those spots.
It’ll be an uphill battle, but technically it’s possible for Minnesota to make it to the post season if a couple of things break their way. Every point matters down the stretch for them, too. Marc-Andre Fleury played yesterday for the Wild, so it should be Filip Gustavsson in net tonight for them.
Projected lines
Kirill Kaprizov (97) – Joel Eriksson Ek (14) – Matt Boldy (12)
Mats Zuccarello (36) – Marco Rossi (23) – Ryan Hartman (38)
Adam Beckman (11) – Connor Dewer (26) – Frederick Gaudreau (89)
Mason Shaw (15) – Jake Lucchini (27) – Vinni Lettieri (10)
Jonas Brodin (25) – Brock Faber (7)
Dakota Mermis (6) – Zach Bogosian (24)
Jon Merrill (4) – Declan Chisholm (47)
Filip Gustavsson (32)
Broadcast details
Time: 7:00 p.m. MT
Watch: Altitude, Bally Sports North
Listen: Altitude Sports Radio 92.5 FM
Opponent’s beat: Wild For Hockey