Colorado Avalanche Make Their Debut in Las Vegas

The Colorado Avalanche look to hand the Vegas Golden Knights the new team’s second-ever regular season loss at T-Mobile Arena.

“[Vegas is] a good team. Obviously they’re surprising everybody in the league. But I think we’re surprising some people as well.” ~Nathan MacKinnon

The Colorado Avalanche are heading into uncharted territory tomorrow night when they take the ice against the Vegas Golden Knights. The two teams met in the preseason and split the series, each winning an away game. However, since this is the Knights’ inaugural season, the game tomorrow is their first official match up.

The Knights have been on a fairytale ride in the NHL. The expansion team is 7-1-0, which is the best start any expansion team has ever enjoyed. Their one loss came after star goalie Marc-Andre Fleury suffered a concussion and was inexplicably left in the game — he gave up four goals to the Detroit Red Wings in the third period after the hit to his head.

The Avalanche are in full rebuild. They’ve got the roster, coaching staff and systems on the ice they want. They’re a young team, though, with the majority of their players well south of 30 years old. The average of their ages is 25.4.

Both teams are coming off of a win at home, Colorado against the Dallas Stars and Vegas against the Chicago Blackhawks.

How to Enjoy the Game

Game time: October 27, 4:00 pm MT
TV Networks: Altitude TV (Avs feed), ATTSN-RM (Knightsfeed), TVAS (French feed)

Radio: Altitude Radio (AM 950)

Nathan MacKinno Break Out

The Colorado Avalanche need center Nathan MacKinnon to break out in scoring. Nine games into the season, he has a single flukey goal, four assists, and only 17 shots on goal. Blake Comeau, who once famously passed to MacKinnon on a breakaway, has one more shot than Nate.

MacKinnon is trying to keep a positive spin on the matter. During a post-practice presser, he said the following:

"“I feel like my play has been solid. I’ve created a lot of chances for myself and others. [The scoring] will come. I trust my game. I feel like I’m doing some good things out there. Obviously there’s some room for improvement.”“I feel like my play has been solid. I’ve created a lot of chances for myself and others. [The scoring] will come. I trust my game. I feel like I’m doing some good things out there. Obviously there’s some room for improvement.”"

Expectations are high for MacKinnon. He’s the highest draft pick Colorado has ever had. He was one of only two players GM Joe Sakic deemed off-limits for trade negotiations. Colorado needs him to start being a top producer.

MacKinnon knows that. He acknowledges that much of the weight of the team weighs on his line’s shoulders — he’s primarily skating with Mikko Rantanen and Sven Andrighetto.

MacKinnon talked a little about what his line needs to do:

"“We need to grind a little bit more. We’re one and done. We’re trying to pass a little bit too much. We’re all good buddies, and I think we’re not being aggressive enough sometimes, and that’s going to lead to a lot of turnovers and backchecking and playing in the D zone.”"

It would be fantastic if MacKinnon broke out of his scoring slump in Vegas. Here’s a little inspiration, from their first meeting in Pepsi Center:

“Magical” Vegas Start

More from Mile High Sticking

The Vegas Golden Knights are in a fairy tale. Even the loss of their top three goalies — I’m counting their inexplicable trade of Calvin Pickard — hasn’t caused them to go into a tailspin.

A lot of it can be explained by the format of the Expansion Draft. The Knights picked a decent player from each team and got a few gems to boot. GM George McPhee was also pretty masterful in how he traded for draft picks, thus allowing him to further put the team on good footing.

I think that horrible tragedy of the Vegas shooting also gave the team a rallying cry. We all send our positive energy Vegas’ way.

Plus, all the fans and players and front offices are in this big adventure together. And the saucy VGK twitter! Yes, it’s all a lovely feel-good movie.

Well, that’s got to stop with the game against the Colorado Avalanche. The Knights have a single regular season loss, and it was against our once-rival Detroit Red Wings. More current division rivals — Dallas, St. Louis and Chicago — have been able to solve the Vegas magic.

So, the Colorado Avalanche have to solve them. Nathan MacKinnon had a good point concerning the situation:

"“[Vegas is] a good team. Obviously they’re surprising everybody in the league. But it’s another game for us. I think we’re surprising some people as well.”"

The Colorado Avalanche have their own Cinderella story going on, and too bad if it goes straight through the Knights’.

I think MacKinnon has a good strategy — it’s just another game. There’s a group of players who want to beat them facing off across the ice. Who cares about all the backstory? The Avs have a job to do, that’s it. And they’ve always been good at playing spoiler.

Boy, I hope it works. The Colorado Avalanche are ever a mental team.

Next: The Avs Need MacK Goals Like These

The Colorado Avalanche will face the Vegas Golden Knights at home on March 24 and again in Vegas on March 26.

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