\u201cWhat happens in Vegas stays in Vegas,\u201d certainly doesn\u2019t apply to the Colorado Avalanche, who\u2019s current win streak more closely resembles another well-known slogan: \u201cIt keeps going, and going, and going\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n
Tonight, they look to keep their winning ways going as they return to action with their final regular season visit to Sin City for a return match against the Vegas Golden Knights.<\/p>\n
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Colorado Avalanche (27-2-7)<\/p>\n
The Opponent: Vegas Golden Knights (17-8-10)<\/p>\n
Time: 8:00 P.M. MST\/10:00 P.M. EST<\/p>\n
Watch: ALT, ALT+ (Avalanche Broadcast Area), SCRIPPS, ESPN+, NHL Center Ice (Outside Avalanche Broadcast Area \u2013 US), SN+, NHL Centre Ice (Canadian Broadcast Areas)<\/p>\n
Listen: Altitude Sports Radio KKSE-FM 92.5 FM<\/p>\n
Colorado Avalanche<\/p>\n
Prior to the League-mandated holiday break, the Avalanche continued their dominance over their Central Division opponents, defeating the Arizona Coyotes Utah Mammoth by a score of 1-0. Sam Girard scored the only goal of the contest after stripping Utah\u2019s Clayton Keller of the puck near the Avalanche bench and putting a highlight-worthy backhand shot up over the shoulder of goaltender Vitek Van\u011b\u010dek in the second period. Scott Wedgewood stopped all 32 shots he faced, including a razor-thin goal-line glove save from Keller that required an extensive review by the officials after the play to determine that the puck never(?) fully crossed the goal line.<\/p>\n
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The victory over Utah was the Avs\u2019 fourth straight victory over Central Division opponents this month, their sixth consecutive win, and their thirteenth consecutive victory on Ball Arena ice. They also reached 61 points in League standings, which is the most accrued by any NHL team before the holiday break (since the NHL implemented a break for Christmas during the 1972-1973 season). They also tied the League record for the second fewest games (36) to break the 60 point barrier in a season, remaining the undisputed leader in points throughout the Central Division, Western Conference, and League standings.<\/p>\n
What does one do with so much winning? Head to Vegas, baby!<\/p>\n
Tonight\u2019s game serves as the second game in the three game series against Vegas. During their previous trip to T-Mobile Arena on Halloween, Martin Ne\u010das opened the scoring 0:41 seconds into the game. Brock Nelson and Brent Burns also contributed offensively, while Cale Makar iced the game with an empty net tally to defeat Vegas by a score of 4-2. A victory tonight will ensure that the Avalanche will finish the calendar year with only two regulation losses on the road\u2014their only regulation losses of the season\u2014and accruing points in 18 of 20 road games played to close out 2025.<\/p>\n
Nathan MacKinnon remains the League\u2019s goal-scoring leader (30), Cale Makar continues to lead all NHL defenseman in points (43), and Scott Wedgewood has the lowest goals-against average among goaltenders (2.01), while Mackenzie Blackwood ranks fourth (2.16). Both Blackwood and Wedgewood also are tied for second among goaltenders in save percentage (0.924%) behind Minnesota\u2019s Jesper Wallstedt (0.933%).<\/p>\n
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The Avs have won their previous three games against Vegas, limiting them to two goals or fewer in those contests.<\/p>\n
Hard to bet against those numbers.<\/p>\n
Projected Lineup<\/p>\n
Forwards:
Artturi Lehkonen \u2013 Nathan MacKinnon \u2013 Martin Ne\u010das
Gabe Landeskog \u2013 Brock Nelson \u2013 Valeri Nichushkin
Victor Olofsson \u2013 Ross Colton \u2013 Gavin Brindley
Parker Kelly \u2013 Jack Drury \u2013 Joel Kiviranta<\/p>\n
Defense:
Cale Makar \u2013 Devon Toews
Josh Manson \u2013 Brent Burns
Sam Girard \u2013 Sam Malinski<\/p>\n
Between the Pipes:
Mackenzie Blackwood
Scott Wedgewood<\/p>\n
Vegas Golden Knights<\/p>\n
Vegas kicked off the 2025 \u2013 2026 regular season with an impressive start in its own right, matching Colorado\u2019s impressive beginning: both clubs had near identical records (Vegas had a 6-1-3 record, while Colorado had a 6-1-4 record) heading into their first head-to-head match in October. Since then, injuries to key personnel have plagued Vegas. Center Jack Eichel, who signed an eight year, $108 million extension with Vegas on October 08, has not played since a 3-2 victory at Columbus on December 13. Defenseman Shea Theodore, who also last played on December 13, has also missed the last four games due to an upper body injury. Captain Mark Stone suffered a wrist injury in a 4-1 loss to Carolina on October 20 and missed 16 games, but has since returned to the lineup. Starting goaltender Adin Hill suffered a lower body injury in the loss to Carolina, and is expected to be out long-term.<\/p>\n
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The prospect of losing of Hill long term prompted Vegas take action. Vegas, a franchise that is no stranger to controversial roster moves\u2014especially concerning its goaltenders\u2014signed goaltender Carter Hart to a two year, $4 million contract on October 25, eight days after he signed a professional tryout contract with Vegas on October 19. Hart, one of five players on Team Canada\u2019s 2018 World Junior championship roster accused of sexual assault, had previously been declared ineligible to play in the NHL prior to being acquitted in June. Since joining Vegas, Hart has a 4-1-2 record with a 0.904 save percentage.<\/p>\n
Mitch Marner, acquired in a sign-and-trade deal with the Toronto Maple Leafs in June, ranks second in points (38) behind Eichel (41), while both share the team lead in assists (29). Pavel Dorofeyev and Tom\u00e1\u0161 Hertl currently lead Vegas in goals (15). On the blue line, Noah Hanifin ranks second in points (11) and time on ice (23:18), while Theodore leads all defenders in both points (20) and time on ice (24:01).<\/p>\n
Tonight\u2019s contest is the second of a four game homestand for Vegas at T-Mobile Arena. Currently, Vegas tied with Anaheim and Edmonton in points (44) for the lead in the Pacific Division; however, they do have two games in hand over Anaheim, and three games in hand over Edmonton. Vegas has lost three of its last four games, and is seeking its first victory over Colorado since October 09, 2024, a 8-4 decision.<\/p>\n
Ante up.<\/p>\n
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Projected Lineup<\/p>\n
Forwards:
Ivan Barbashev \u2013 Mitch Marner \u2013 Mark Stone
Pavel Dorofeyev \u2013 Tom\u00e1\u0161 Hertl \u2013 Alexander Holtz
Reilly Smith \u2013 Brett Howden \u2013 Braeden Bowman
Brandon Saad \u2013 Colton Sissons \u2013 Keegan Kolesar<\/p>\n
Defense:
Brayden McNabb \u2013 Kayden Korczak
Noah Hanifin \u2013 Ben Hutton
J\u00e9r\u00e9my Lauzon \u2013 Zach Whitecloud<\/p>\n
Between the Pipes:
Carter Hart
Akira Schmid<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cWhat happens in Vegas stays in Vegas,\u201d certainly doesn\u2019t apply to the Colorado Avalanche, who\u2019s current win streak…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":375969,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5116],"tags":[1042,2831,3705,2210,2320,193,2882,3704,1598,1772,1741,1034,1116,88,1843,1518,192,144,5277,7950,1543,198,18209,48082,5,1259,515,1041,9247,795,1036,1544,3710,1848,1123,1040,161,533,517,4,48850,2833,6295,2880,1260,1351,4311,4520,2565,48851,31,3154,3922,74,39,3699,48849,3708],"class_list":{"0":"post-375968","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-colorado-avalanche","8":"tag-adin-hill","9":"tag-akira-schmid","10":"tag-alexander-holtz","11":"tag-anaheim","12":"tag-artturi-lehkonen","13":"tag-avalanche","14":"tag-ben-hutton","15":"tag-brandon-saad","16":"tag-brayden-mcnabb","17":"tag-brent-burns","18":"tag-brett-howden","19":"tag-brock-nelson","20":"tag-cale-makar","21":"tag-carter-hart","22":"tag-central-division","23":"tag-clayton-keller","24":"tag-colorado","25":"tag-colorado-avalanche","26":"tag-coloradoavalanche","27":"tag-colton-sissons","28":"tag-devon-toews","29":"tag-edmonton","30":"tag-gavin-brindley","31":"tag-hertl","32":"tag-hockey","33":"tag-ivan-barbashev","34":"tag-jack-drury","35":"tag-jack-eichel","36":"tag-jeremy-lauzon","37":"tag-jesper-wallstedt","38":"tag-joel-kiviranta","39":"tag-josh-manson","40":"tag-keegan-kolesar","41":"tag-landeskog","42":"tag-mackenzie-blackwood","43":"tag-mark-stone","44":"tag-minnesota","45":"tag-mitch-marner","46":"tag-nathan-mackinnon","47":"tag-nhl","48":"tag-nhl-centre-ice","49":"tag-noah-hanifin","50":"tag-parker-kelly","51":"tag-pavel-dorofeyev","52":"tag-reilly-smith","53":"tag-ross-colton","54":"tag-sam-girard","55":"tag-sam-malinski","56":"tag-scott-wedgewood","57":"tag-theodore","58":"tag-toronto-maple-leafs","59":"tag-utah-mammoth","60":"tag-valeri-nichushkin","61":"tag-vegas","62":"tag-vegas-golden-knights","63":"tag-victor-olofsson","64":"tag-what-happens-in-vegas","65":"tag-zach-whitecloud"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/375968","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=375968"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/375968\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/375969"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=375968"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=375968"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=375968"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}