It\u2019s a quick trip to middle America for the Colorado Avalanche for a showdown with the Columbus Blue Jackets, who are in search of their first victory on home ice during this 2025-26 campaign. The Avalanche, on the other hand, have gotten off to a blazing start this season, collecting at least a point in all four regular-season contests so far. Will the Avalanche continue that hot start, or will it be the Blue Jackets\u2019 turn to take the victory lane?<\/p>\n
Colorado Avalanche: 3-0-1<\/p>\n
The Opponent: Columbus Blue Jackets 1-2-0<\/p>\n
Watch: Altitude, Altitude+<\/p>\n
Listen: Altitude Sports Radio, 92.5 FM<\/p>\n
I know victory lane is more of a racing term. That said, the Colorado Avalanche have been watching more like an F1 race as of late, so I think the terminology can be interchangeable. Nathan MacKinnon and Martin Necas sit tied for third in the player points race, each with 8 points in the first four contests. It\u2019s not just the points, either; it\u2019s how they are putting up points. Watching these two work together, along with Artturi Lehkonen, is reminiscent of Ferrari executing a team order\u2014poetry in motion.<\/p>\n
Avs fans got a bit of a scare with Gabe Landeskog missing practice yesterday, but we were warned of him taking days off for maintenance, and it appears that\u2019s precisely what we saw yesterday. Jared Bednar says that Cap is good to go. Can\u2019t blame Avalanche fans for overreacting to that one. They have been through a lot.<\/p>\n
It feels like Zakhar Bardakov has to get a start in tonight\u2019s game, and with Brock Nelson a likely game-time decision, that feels entirely likely. Nelson was cut against the Sabres on Monday afternoon on his hand or wrist area, but it was described as \u201cjust a flesh wound\u201d by Jared Bednar on Altitude Sports Radio Tuesday morning. If Nelson can\u2019t go, I\u2019d expect Ross Colton to elevate.<\/p>\n
Scott Wedgewood is the confirmed starter for tonight\u2019s contest, and to be honest, Scott has looked more like a bona fide starter than a backup so far this year. That\u2019s great news for fans and MacKenzie Blackwood, who shouldn\u2019t feel rushed to get back after being loaned to the Colorado Eagles for a conditioning stint.<\/p>\n
Artturi Lehkonen \u2014 Nathan MacKinnon \u2014 Martin Necas
Gabe Landeskog \u2014 Brock Nelson \u2014 Valeri Nichushkin
Ross Colton \u2014 Jack Drury \u2014 Viktor Olofsson
Joel Kiviranta \u2014 Parker Kelly \u2014 Gavin Brindley<\/p>\n
Devon Toews \u2014 Cale Makar
Josh Manson \u2014 Brent Burns
Ilya Solovyov \u2014 Sam Malinski<\/p>\n
Scott Wedgewood
Trent Miner<\/p>\n
Alright, the Blue Jackets are a good team and have a great defender of their own who also wears the number eight coincidentally. Zach Werensky, in fact, got the second most votes for Norris last season, falling short of Cale Makar by 166 first-place votes. Werensky has three points in as many games, so the Avalanche would do well to keep an eye on the young man.<\/p>\n
Kirill Marchenko had himself a wicked hatty against the Minnesota Wild last weekend, and it looks like he hasn\u2019t skipped a beat since putting up career-high numbers last season.<\/p>\n
I think the Columbus team is a playoff team and thus provides a good test for an Avalanche team that has already garnered the praise of pundits around the league. You might call this a \u2019trap game,\u2019 but in all honesty, I think Columbus is a good team.<\/p>\n
It will be Merzlikins in the net for the Blue Jackets, who is 1-0 on the season, giving up four goals to the Wild, but securing a win while earning a .923 SV%.<\/p>\n
Elvis Merzlikins
Jet Greaves<\/p>\n
Note: Erik Gudbranson<\/a> and Miles Wood<\/a> are listed as \u201cday-to-day.\u201d<\/p>\n Let\u2019s drop the puck in Ohio!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s a quick trip to middle America for the Colorado Avalanche for a showdown with the Columbus Blue…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":248547,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5116],"tags":[193,192,144,5277,5,4,1346],"class_list":{"0":"post-248546","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-colorado-avalanche","8":"tag-avalanche","9":"tag-colorado","10":"tag-colorado-avalanche","11":"tag-coloradoavalanche","12":"tag-hockey","13":"tag-nhl","14":"tag-open-threads"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/115386204069632605","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248546","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=248546"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248546\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/248547"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=248546"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=248546"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=248546"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}