Tonight, the Colorado Avalanche hit the road and find themselves in Chicago just after they turned the river green for St. Patrick\u2019s Day. Colorado is probably pretty sick of that Colorado after their SO loss to rival Dallas Stars in their last time out, and after dealing with health issues in the locker room. Connor Bedard and the Blackhawks, on the other hand, are coming on strong late this season, with Bedard showing more confidence and flair than ever. Can the kid with one of the league\u2019s best releases take advantage of a battered Avalanche team?<\/p>\n
Colorado Avalanche<\/p>\n
Jared Bednar all but flat-out said that despite the SO loss, he wasn\u2019t displeased with the performance or really concerned with the outcome, stating, \u201cI have very few issues with the way we played. I\u2019ve said it all along, I\u2019m not going to judge our team on results only. I think that\u2019s a losing battle. I think if you play like that, good things will happen.\u201d So what does success look like to this team, which is now just two points ahead of Dallas for division supremacy and the Presidents\u2019 Trophy? The points do matter.<\/p>\n
I agree with Bednar\u2019s analysis of the team\u2019s performance. They were better 5-on-5 and created plenty of chances, but just weren\u2019t able to beat Jake Oettinger. That feels a bit too familiar, but let\u2019s see how those chances settle against Chicago, who aren\u2019t as competitive between the pipes.<\/p>\n
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Scott Wedgewood only allowed one goal in the biggest game of the regular season, which was a pleasant sight as he was chased from the crease in Colorado\u2019s 7-2 loss to Pittsburgh. It would be just as wonderful to see MacKenzie Blackwood get the start and dominate tonight. Avs would be very pleased to have both netminders firing on all cylinders as we get closer to April.<\/p>\n
Projected Lineup<\/p>\n
Valeri Nichushkin<\/a> \u2014 Nathan MacKinnon<\/a> \u2014 Martin Necas<\/a> Brett Kulak<\/a> \u2014 Cale Makar<\/a> Advertisement<\/p>\n MacKenzie Blackwood Chicago Blackhawks<\/p>\n The Blackhawks aren\u2019t just Connor Bedard and the boys, although he steals most of the headlines. Bedard has 11 points in his last 10 games, including a big goal against Minnesota in their last time out and victory.<\/p>\n Colorado would do well to get out in front of this Blackhawks team early, as they are still undefeated when entering the third period with a lead.<\/p>\n The Blackhawks probably aren\u2019t a playoff team with how things are stacking up in the West. No one is catching the trio of Colorado, Dallas, and Minnesota, and the wild-card spots will be just as difficult to snag. Chicago sits 8 points back from the only relatively attainable wild card spot. Guess they can do their best and play spoiler!<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n Projected Lineup<\/p>\n Ryan Greene<\/a> \u2014 Connor Bedard<\/a> \u2014 Andre Burakovsky<\/a> Alex Vlasic<\/a> \u2014 Artyom Levshunov<\/a> Spencer Knight
Nazem Kadri<\/a> \u2014 Brock Nelson<\/a> \u2014 Nicolas Roy<\/a>
Parker Kelly<\/a> \u2014 Jack Drury<\/a> \u2014 Joel Kiviranta<\/a>
Ivan Ivan<\/a> \u2014 Zakhar Bardakov<\/a> \u2014 Gavin Brindley<\/a><\/p>\n
Josh Manson<\/a> \u2014 Brent Burns<\/a>
Devon Toews<\/a> \u2014 Sam Malinski<\/a><\/p>\n
Scott Wedgewood<\/p>\n
Tyler Bertuzzi<\/a> \u2014 Frank Nazar<\/a> \u2014 Teuvo Teravainen<\/a>
Andrew Mangiapane<\/a> \u2014 Ryan Donato<\/a> \u2014 Ilya Mikheyev<\/a>
Nick Lardis<\/a> \u2014 Landon Slaggert<\/a><\/p>\n
Matt Grzelcyk<\/a> \u2014 Sam Rinzel<\/a>
Wyatt Kaiser<\/a> \u2014 Louis Crevier<\/a>
Ethan Del Mastro<\/a><\/p>\n
Arvid Soderblom<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tonight, the Colorado Avalanche hit the road and find themselves in Chicago just after they turned the river…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":514071,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5115],"tags":[1824,491,521,1772,3592,1034,1116,37,96,5263,144,508,147,1543,8584,800,18209,5,8180,515,424,1117,1036,1544,1565,1123,517,2054,4,1337,6295,6614,855,4520,2565,488,4951,9793,3922,1570],"class_list":{"0":"post-514070","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-chicago-blackhawks","8":"tag-andrew-mangiapane","9":"tag-arvid-soderblom","10":"tag-blackhawks","11":"tag-brent-burns","12":"tag-brett-kulak","13":"tag-brock-nelson","14":"tag-cale-makar","15":"tag-chicago","16":"tag-chicago-blackhawks","17":"tag-chicagoblackhawks","18":"tag-colorado-avalanche","19":"tag-connor-bedard","20":"tag-dallas-stars","21":"tag-devon-toews","22":"tag-ethan-del-mastro","23":"tag-frank-nazar","24":"tag-gavin-brindley","25":"tag-hockey","26":"tag-ilya-mikheyev","27":"tag-jack-drury","28":"tag-jake-oettinger","29":"tag-jared-bednar","30":"tag-joel-kiviranta","31":"tag-josh-manson","32":"tag-louis-crevier","33":"tag-mackenzie-blackwood","34":"tag-nathan-mackinnon","35":"tag-nazem-kadri","36":"tag-nhl","37":"tag-nicolas-roy","38":"tag-parker-kelly","39":"tag-ryan-donato","40":"tag-ryan-greene","41":"tag-sam-malinski","42":"tag-scott-wedgewood","43":"tag-spencer-knight","44":"tag-the-blackhawks","45":"tag-tyler-bertuzzi","46":"tag-valeri-nichushkin","47":"tag-wyatt-kaiser"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/514070","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=514070"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/514070\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/514071"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=514070"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=514070"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=514070"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}