Colorado Avalanche Need to Sharpen Up for Arizona Coyotes

The Colorado Avalanche lost a tough game against the Winnipeg Jets on Friday night, and they looked a little rusty after a long break. They need to sharpen up for the Coyotes tonight.

The Colorado Avalanche ran into a hot goaltender in Friday night’s game. However, by all other accounts, they seemed to dominate a good portion of the game.

They had 20 shots on goal during the third period, and put up a total of 37. They also only allowed 21 shots on goal from the Jets, but Michael Hutchinson made the saves he needed to and the Avs were shutout 1-0.

Tonight, the Avs will play the second game of a back-to-back against the Arizona Coyotes. Even though they ran into a hot goaltender on Friday night, they still should have been able to get a goal on the scoreboard. Tonight, they need to make sure and score, and preferably in bunches.

The Coyotes have been the worst team to start the season so far, with a record of 2-5-0 through their first seven games. However, they are coming off of a win, and will be looking to keep the streak going.

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Nonetheless, this is also an important game for the Colorado Avalanche tonight; they need to make sure they don’t start the season with a losing record in the first seven.

Coyotes Struggling with Goaltending

It’s unlikely the Avs run into another brick wall tonight in goal because the Coyotes goaltenders have been struggling mightily so far.

The Coyotes have allowed 30 goals in their first seven games, good for 4.29 goals against a game. Only the Calgary Flames have allowed more goals to this point, with 32 in their first 9 games.

That’s 3.56 goals against a game for the Flames, which is bad but not nearly as bad as the Coyotes. It’s safe to say that the Coyotes are struggling with allowing goals. However, that’s often a symptom of defense rather than goaltending.

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Unfortunately for Arizona fans, the Coyotes goaltenders have been atrocious.

Justin Peters has a 0-1 record with a 3.23 GAA and a .914 save percentage. Mike Smith has a 1-0 record with a 3.27 GAA and a .900 save percentage, but he’s injured. Louis Domingue has a 1-4 record with a 4.74 GAA and a .857 save percentage. Goaltending is an issue in Arizona right now.

Nonetheless, goal scoring has not been an issue for the Coyotes so far, so the Avalanche will need to be cognizant of that.

Coyotes Not Struggling with Scoring

The Arizona coyotes have scored 22 goals in their first seven games, and that’s good for the No. 11 spot in the NHL in goals for per game with 3.14.

That’s also six more goals than the Avs have scored this year, and the Coyotes have only played one more game than the Avs this year.

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The Avs are No. 17 in the league with 2.67 goals for per game, and that number needs to increase.

The ‘Yotes know how to score, and they had the day off yesterday, so they’ll be rested.

However, They still gave up 4 goals in their game against the Flyers, so it’s not like they have the goals against issue figured out.

Conclusion

The Coyotes will be playing only their second game on home ice tonight, after playing six of their first seven on the road. They’ll be ready to go tonight, and they won their only other game on home ice, so the Avs will need to be ready for a challenge tonight.

The Avalanche started their first period against the Jets in a bit of a loll from the time off. They were a bit slow, and they seemed like the time off had been too long. However, as the game wore on the Avalanche emerged as the more dominant team, and that showed especially in the third.

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If the Avalanche can start the game with the type of effort they had in the third period against the Jets then they should have no problem taking care of Arizona tonight.

This is an important matchup for the Avs tonight, but it’s also an important matchup for the Coyotes. The Avs need to make sure to stay sharp in the contest, and stay more determined than the Coyotes because the Coyotes will be coming tonight.

The puck drop is at 7:00 pm MST tonight.

Thank you for stopping by folks.