Buoyed by goaltending stability, the Colorado Avalanche visit Vancouver on Monday to face a Canucks team looking for some form of stability on home ice.
The Avalanche are 5-2-0 since acquiring Scott Wedgewood from the Nashville Predators on Nov. 30, with Wedgewood delivering a sterling .931 save percentage in his first five games.
The goaltending overhaul continued when Mackenzie Blackwood was obtained in a trade with the San Jose Sharks last Monday, and he made a strong first impression in his Avalanche debut.
Blackwood stopped 37 of 39 shots in Colorado’s 5-2 win over visiting Nashville on Saturday. Coach Jared Bednar said several of his players were battling illness, forcing Blackwood to carry the team through a slow start.
“I thought (Blackwood) was outstanding,” Bednar said. “Just complete control. … He gave us a really good chance to find our game, because that game could’ve been ugly by the 30-minute mark.”
From the start of the season through Nov. 30, the Avalanche allowed 3.72 goals per game. Through seven games in December, the Avalanche are averaging only 2.57 goals allowed per game.
It’s not clear yet how Wedgewood and Blackwood will divvy up the starts or who will face Vancouver on Monday. However, if Colorado has solved its goaltending problems, the sky’s the limit for a roster featuring superstar talent.
Nathan MacKinnon (13 goals, 37 assists) and Mikko Rantanen (18 goals, 28 assists) have combined for 96 points entering Monday, the most of any two teammates. MacKinnon is the NHL’s leader in both assists and points (50).
Monday’s matchup also features two of the league’s elite defensemen. Colorado’s Cale Makar (nine goals, 28 assists) has a slight edge on Vancouver’s Quinn Hughes (seven goals, 27 assists) on the scoresheet, but Hughes has played in three fewer games.
Hughes and essentially the entire offense were held in check Saturday, as Vancouver was outshot 28-20 in a 5-1 home loss to the Boston Bruins. The lopsided game included a 16-4 shots edge and two Boston goals in the first period, immediately putting the Canucks in a hole.
Vancouver coach Rick Tocchet noted that players had been ill the previous few days, but also called out an unnamed “four or five guys” who are “struggling to get emotionally invested in the game. … There’s still certain guys, we’ve got to find another gear from them.
“You’ve got to understand that it’s the NHL, and you can’t play one good game and two bad or whatever. … Sometimes (some) guys, it takes them like 30 minutes to get into the game, for whatever reason.”
The inconsistency has been most apparent at home, where the Canucks are 5-7-4. The Canucks are 2-2-1 in the first five games of a six-game homestand.
Thatcher Demko stopped 23 of 28 shots Saturday in his second game after a nearly eight-month layoff due to a knee injury. Kevin Lankinen didn’t dress against Boston due to illness, so if he isn’t healthy by Monday, either Demko or backup Arturs Silovs will start.
–Field Level Media