After a short night, the Canadian woke up in Colorado this Saturday morning, a few hours before a match which looks, on paper at least, like a high mountain to climb. Five notes on this confrontation.
Posted at 12:45 p.m.
No gift
The double that the Habs are preparing to complete is the most thankless of their 2024-2025 calendar. After losing 4-2 in Chicago on Friday night, the club jumped on the plane to Denver. Theoretically, this trip gave the players an hour of sleep, since Colorado is on Mountain time, but this potential gain will have little value since the match will be played at 5 p.m. local time, or 23 p.m. after the start of the meeting in Chicago. According to the schedule provided by the team, the group was expected to arrive at the hotel at 1:45 a.m. Friday night, if everything went according to plan. The Avalanche, for their part, played their last game on Thursday, at home no less. Strictly in terms of rest and recovery, nothing is ideal here for the CH.
Two clubs in good shape…
Despite the defeat in Chicago, the Canadian remains in good spirits. Since coming back to life on November 11 in Buffalo, Montreal has compiled a record of 13-9-1 (.587), in 11e NHL rank. Above all, they have won six of their last eight games, including an improbable hat-trick between Christmas and New Year’s Day at Sunrise (4-0), Tampa (5-2) and Vegas (3-2). However, the misstep in the Windy City must not undermine their confidence, because since the same November 11, the Colorado Avalanche have signed 17 victories in 24 outings (17-7-0 and .708). The former Nordiques have also won their last six matches. In the last against the Buffalo Sabres, they erased deficits of 3-0 and 5-3 to win 6-5 in overtime.
…but not healthy
The Canadian discovered, over the last month, a reality that he had not known for years: dealing with complete training, and therefore health. Since the return of Patrik Laine on December 3, after a long convalescence made necessary by a serious knee injury, the CH went through a sequence of 13 games during which only two players, Kaiden Guhle and David Savard, had to be absent once each. Savard (upper body) and Laine (flu symptoms) however had to withdraw from Chicago, and we will only know in the evening if they will be in uniform in Denver. The infirmary is much more full on the opposing side, while Scott Wedgewood, Valeri Nichushkin, Miles Wood and Oliver Kylington are currently injured. The Avalanche are the NHL team most affected by injuries since the start of the season, according to the site NHL Injury Viz.
PHOTO DOMINICK GRAVEL, ARCHIVES LA PRESSE
Patrik Laine (92)
The stars are having fun
Despite the pitfalls, if the Avalanche have redeemed a difficult start to the season in a beautiful way, it is thanks to its big stars. Nathan MacKinnon (64 points) and Mikko Rantanen (56) are respectively first and third in NHL scoring, while Cale Makar (48) is the most prolific defenseman on the circuit. Unsurprisingly, the three will represent their country at the 4 Nations Showdown in February – Rantanen is Finnish and the other two are Canadian – as will Artturi Lehkonen (Finland) and Devon Toews (Canada). Even if two injuries limited him to only seven games, Jonathan Drouin is not left out among the offensive guns, having so far amassed eight points. The Quebecer is back in great shape, as witnessed by The Press Thursday evening.
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Major change in front of the net
If the Avalanche are looking so good right now, it’s also thanks to their goaltenders who are finally stopping pucks. After Alexandar Georgiev and Justus Annunen had poor starts in October and November, the two were traded and replaced by MacKenzie Blackwood and Scott Wedgewood. The shock desired by management has borne fruit. Blackwood has even been one of the best goalies in the league since arriving in Denver in early December, which has already earned him a five-year contract extension. He’ll see plenty of action over the next few weeks, as Wedgewood was injured against the Sabers on Thursday, and is expected to miss several games. It is also this same Blackwood who will face the Canadian on Saturday.
The meeting between the Canadiens and the Avalanche will begin at 7 p.m. Montreal time.
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