We are ready to drop the puck on the final game of the regular season, and it will be the Seattle Kraken visiting Ball Arena for one last showdown before the Stanley Cup Playoffs begin this weekend.<\/p>\n
The Avs are happy to welcome head coach Jared Bednar back behind the bench after he took a puck up high last week against the Calgary Flames.<\/p>\n
As Bednar said, \u201cThat\u2019s why you keep your head on a swivel and keep your hands out of your pockets.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Kraken won\u2019t be a playoff team this year, and so this one should play out like a \u2018no-hitter\u2019 similar to what we saw in the last two contests.<\/p>\n
Jared Bednar also mentioned, \u201cWe have a bunch of guys sitting out,\u201d so we will keep an eye on who gets a spell this evening.<\/p>\n
Colorado Avalanche: 54-16-11<\/p>\n
The Opponent: Seattle Kraken (34-36-11)<\/p>\n
Watch: Altitude, Altitude+, ESPN+<\/p>\n
Listen: Altitude Sports Radio, 92.5 FM<\/p>\n
The Avalanche successfully checked a lot of boxes the last time out against the Flames.<\/p>\n
Nathan MacKinnon scored another goal, bringing his Rocket Richard total to 53, with only Connor McDavid having a chance at catching him.<\/p>\n
McDavid will need to score six goals against Vancouver for that to happen. It\u2019s possible but not likely.<\/p>\n
Scott Wedgewood and MacKenzie Blackwood will win the William Jennings trophy, awarded to the team that allows the fewest goals.<\/p>\n
Martin Necas logged his 100th point of the season, assisting the previously mentioned MacKinnon empty-netter.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s fan appreciation night, so be sure to get to your seats early if you are attending!<\/p>\n
Note: Josh Manson and Nazem Kadri will not play this evening. Jared Bednar also mentioned some players will be sitting out, backed up by some transactions ahead of puck drop.<\/p>\n
Unfortunately for Kraken fans, this is a road game, so any boo\u2019s for Cale Makar will go unheard.<\/p>\n
More unfortunately, that\u2019s the last time we\u2019ve seen the Kraken in the playoffs.<\/p>\n
The main thing we are really concerned about, for both teams, is that no one gets injured.<\/p>\n
The Avalanche have a lot to play for starting this weekend, and no one wants to head into a vacation banged up.<\/p>\n
Note: I decided not to project tonight\u2019s lineups, given both teams\u2019 sitting players and call-ups.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"We are ready to drop the puck on the final game of the regular season, and it will…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":554027,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5116],"tags":[193,192,144,29254,3597,5277,5,4],"class_list":{"0":"post-554026","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-colorado-avalanche-game-coverage","12":"tag-colorado-avalanche-previews","13":"tag-coloradoavalanche","14":"tag-hockey","15":"tag-nhl"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116416054104683173","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/554026","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=554026"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/554026\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/554027"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=554026"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=554026"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=554026"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}