Colorado Avalanche @ Tampa Bay Lightning: Game 46 Preview

The Colorado Avalanche (19-17-9) stay in Florida to take on the Tampa Bay Lightning (28-14-4) in a clash of forces of nature.

The Avalanche are coming off a 4-2 victory over Florida’s other team, the Panthers. Now they square off against the Eastern Conference’s best, the Bolts. Even more daunting is the fact that the Lightning can brag about a 17-4-1 home record, proof that this team is electric in their own building.

The Avalanche are hoping that a little cool snow can infiltrate the building, and insulate against those electric charges.

Tampa Bay is led by Tyler Johnson, who has emerged as a bonafide star in the Eastern Conference, despite the fact that he doesn’t get much national press. Johnson leads the Lightning with 48 points in 44 games, and is proving to be more than just a sidekick for Steven Stamkos.

Stamkos is doing his thing as well, and is tied for the league lead with 26 goals through 44 games. The Avalanche will have to try and slow these guys down if they hope to keep the Lightning’s high powered attack at bay.

Even if the Avalanche do cool off the big-guns, the Lightning have plenty of secondary scoring. Not surprising, considering they are leading the NHL with 3.22 goals per game. Yowza!

Nikita Kucherov is a player you may not have heard much about. He is a young Russian winger, and has 17 goals and 26 assists on the season. Having not watched an abundance of Lightning hockey myself this season, I’ll be curious to see how much of an impact Kucherov has, or if he is coasting on some of the talented guys around him. He can’t be too shabby, since he is third on the team in scoring.

Overall, the Bolts have 6 players with at least 30 points on the season, and 3 players with over 40. For comparison, the Avalanche have only Alex Tanguay and Jarome Iginla over the 30-point barrier, and just barely, with 31 and 30 points, respectively.

Speaking of the barrier, Tyson Barrie is the next closest for the Avs with 28 points on the season. None of the Avalanche’s young core are at all close to the point-per-game pace this season. You want a reason why these two team’s fortunes have been so different this year? I’d say that’s a pretty big one, right there. It’s a goal dog-eat dog world in the NHL, and you need your goal-scorers to fetch the tennis balls and put pucks in the net to win on a nightly basis.

The Lightning also have a strong defensive core, led by Victor Hedman. Hedman was drafted one pick ahead of Matt Duchene in the 2009 draft, and is having a strong season. At least he is having a strong season in the games he has played. Hedman has missed some time with injury, but he has 5 goals and 15 assists in the 26 games he has taken part in.

One player who isn’t having a terrific season is rookie Jonathan Drouin. Drouin has only 2 goals on the season in 35 games, and has been a healthy scratch on a few occasions. Granted, he has used his smooth playmaking to rack up 16 assists. For those who are concerned with Nathan MacKinnon, these guys were both drafted in the same year, and Drouin is nearly six months older than MacK.

Now, I think it’s fair to say that both players are in different situations, so it’s hard to make that direct comparison. However, the point is, no matter how talented a young player is, he is going to have an adjustment period upon entering the NHL. I don’t think it’s the worst thing in the world for either of these guys that the points aren’t flowing off their sticks this season, as long as they are learning valuable lessons.

Expect to see Semyon (can’t even score a goal) Varlamov back in net for the Avalanche. Ben Bishop is the presumed starter for the Lightning, although they may see the dismal road scoring Avalanche on the horizon, and go with Evgeni Nabokov instead.

This is a game that the Avalanche seemingly have no business winning. But hey, the Lightning should know a thing or two about being shocked, right? The game will face-off at 5:00pm MST on Altitude 2.