The Colorado Avalanche and Nathan MacKinnon make their return to Ball Arena in Denver, CO, tonight for an interdivisional matchup with on-again, off-again rival Minnesota Wild. The Avs suffered defeat to the Wild in a tense shootout back in November, but bounced back with a commanding 5-1 victory at the end of the calendar year. This third out of four meetings this season could swing the divisional series in the loaded Central.<\/p>\n
Nathan MacKinnon, returning to NHL ice for the first time since Canada\u2019s heartbreaking 2-1 overtime silver-medal loss to Team USA in the Milano Cortina gold final, carries the sting of that agonizing missed open-net chance late in regulation and the media storm from his candid post-game remarks that many viewed as implying Canada was the superior squad despite getting the full quote and context.<\/p>\n
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Colorado Avalanche: 38-9-9<\/p>\n
The Opponent: Minnesota Wild (34-14-10)<\/p>\n
Time: 7:00 p.m. MT<\/p>\n
Watch: Altitude, Altitude+, ESPN+, KTVD, KUSA<\/p>\n
Listen: Altitude Sports Radio, 92.5 FM<\/p>\n
Rumors of lingering fatigue or bumps from the intense Olympic tournament swirl, yet after routine maintenance rest in Wednesday\u2019s 4-2 road win over the Utah Mammoth, MacKinnon will be back on the top line. Will we see a slightly subdued MacKinnon, still processing the gut-wrenching near-miss and relentless spotlight, or the unleashed version ready to set the hockey world on fire once more?<\/p>\n
The Wild had eight Olympians representing their countries, including Americans Matt Boldy (who scored in the gold thriller) and Brock Faber, likely still fuzzy from Team USA\u2019s triumphant celebration after claiming gold. Swedish starter Filip Gustavsson brings fresh momentum, as Minnesota rides a five-game win streak (8-1-1 in their last 10) into the break. Let\u2019s see how post-Olympic energy\u2014or fatigue\u2014factors into this always-intense rivalry clash, with playoff implications hanging in the balance.<\/p>\n
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Colorado Avalanche<\/p>\n
The Avalanche made pretty easy work of the Utah Mammoth in Salt Lake City last night, cruising to a 4-2 road victory with a dynamic four-goal second period. Interestingly enough, the power play\u2014still mired near the league\u2019s basement\u2014scored on its first opportunity while MacKinnon-less, and more ironically, it was Martin Necas ripping a one-timer from the exact left-circle spot Bednar called \u201cMacKinnon\u2019s spot\u201d postgame with Evan Rawal.<\/p>\n
I think this should go without saying, but a power play that\u2019s been stubbornly ineffective for over five years (hovering around 15% this season) shouldn\u2019t be reserving sacred real estate for anyone. This rigid approach has plagued the Colorado Avalanche for far too long. Nonetheless, it was encouraging to see the man advantage unit clip at a respectable 20% in their return to action, with Necas capping the scoring.<\/p>\n
The key to any back-to-back situation is managing the start of the second game. Avs should have plenty of legs after the Olympic break, though some Olympians didn\u2019t get full rest and return with heavy mileage. Let\u2019s see if the Avalanche can jump out strong tonight, push their momentum forward, and extend this newfound winning streak to three games against a hungry Wild squad.<\/p>\n
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Projected Lineup:<\/p>\n
Artturi Lehkonen<\/a> \u2014 Nathan MacKinnon<\/a> \u2014 Valeri Nichushkin<\/a> Devon Toews<\/a> \u2014 Cale Makar<\/a> MacKenzie Blackwood Minnesota Wild<\/p>\n The Wild have made things in the Central Division a bit more interesting, riding a sizzling five-game winning streak into tonight\u2019s contest (8-1-1 in their last 10 pre-break, now 34-14-10 for 78 points). They haven\u2019t been afraid to pay up and swing big deals to acquire elite talent, with Quinn Hughes bolstering the backend in a blockbuster trade and Kirill Kaprizov inked to one of the NHL\u2019s richest contracts ever\u2014and it\u2019s paying dividends on the ice.<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n That\u2019s exactly why winning the division outright matters so much. The Avs would be wise to delay any Central Division playoff matchup until the second round if possible.<\/p>\n Keep an eye on who the Wild decide to go with between the pipes, as both Filip Gustavsson and Jesper Wallstedt vie for the starter\u2019s net after Wallstedt\u2019s surprise rookie surge this season. Wallstedt has also been the subject of heavy trade rumors due to Minnesota\u2019s goaltending surplus, with GM Bill Guerin eyeing more forward upgrades before the deadline.<\/p>\n Projected Lineup:<\/p>\n Kirill Kaprizov<\/a> \u2014 Ryan Hartman<\/a> \u2014 Mats Zuccarello<\/a> Advertisement<\/p>\n Quinn Hughes<\/a> \u2014 Brock Faber<\/a> Filip Gustavsson Follow along in the comments below!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Colorado Avalanche and Nathan MacKinnon make their return to Ball Arena in Denver, CO, tonight for an…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":479377,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5118],"tags":[6732,2320,193,1772,3592,1502,1034,1116,144,12794,8478,1543,535,7,18209,5,515,1292,1339,795,499,1036,1544,537,1123,1118,513,3707,799,161,38,5280,517,4,248,6295,1496,1351,2029,4520,2565,1491,19572,3154,3922,3699,1120,3359,162,2834,3703],"class_list":["post-479376","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-minnesota-wild","tag-altitude-sports","tag-artturi-lehkonen","tag-avalanche","tag-brent-burns","tag-brett-kulak","tag-brock-faber","tag-brock-nelson","tag-cale-makar","tag-colorado-avalanche","tag-daemon-hunt","tag-danila-yurov","tag-devon-toews","tag-filip-gustavsson","tag-gabriel-landeskog","tag-gavin-brindley","tag-hockey","tag-jack-drury","tag-jacob-middleton","tag-jared-spurgeon","tag-jesper-wallstedt","tag-joel-eriksson-ek","tag-joel-kiviranta","tag-josh-manson","tag-kirill-kaprizov","tag-mackenzie-blackwood","tag-marcus-johansson","tag-martin-necas","tag-mats-zuccarello","tag-matt-boldy","tag-minnesota","tag-minnesota-wild","tag-minnesotawild","tag-nathan-mackinnon","tag-nhl","tag-nico-sturm","tag-parker-kelly","tag-quinn-hughes","tag-ross-colton","tag-ryan-hartman","tag-sam-malinski","tag-scott-wedgewood","tag-the-wild","tag-tyler-pitlick","tag-utah-mammoth","tag-valeri-nichushkin","tag-victor-olofsson","tag-vinnie-hinostroza","tag-vladimir-tarasenko","tag-wild","tag-yakov-trenin","tag-zach-bogosian"],"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\/479376","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=479376"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/479376\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/479377"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=479376"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=479376"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=479376"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Gabriel Landeskog<\/a> \u2014 Brock Nelson<\/a> \u2014 Martin Necas<\/a>
Ross Colton<\/a> \u2014 Jack Drury<\/a> \u2014 Victor Olofsson<\/a>
Joel Kiviranta<\/a> \u2014 Parker Kelly<\/a> \u2014 Gavin Brindley<\/a><\/p>\n
Josh Manson<\/a> \u2014 Brent Burns<\/a>
Brett Kulak<\/a> \u2014 Sam Malinski<\/a><\/p>\n
Scott Wedgewood<\/p>\n
Marcus Johansson<\/a> \u2014 Joel Eriksson Ek<\/a> \u2014 Matt Boldy<\/a>
Yakov Trenin<\/a> \u2014 Danila Yurov<\/a> \u2014 Vladimir Tarasenko<\/a>
Vinnie Hinostroza<\/a> \u2014 Nico Sturm<\/a> \u2014 Tyler Pitlick<\/a><\/p>\n
Jacob Middleton<\/a> \u2014 Jared Spurgeon<\/a>
Daemon Hunt<\/a> \u2014 Zach Bogosian<\/a><\/p>\n
Jesper Wahlstedt<\/p>\n