Colorado Avalanche: Finishing Off the Road Trip in Philadelphia

The Colorado Avalanche will complete their four-game road trip in Philadelphia, where they face the Flyers for the second and final time.

The Colorado Avalanche complete their four-game road trip with a visit to the City of Brotherly Love, Philadelphia. They’ll be facing the Philadelphia Flyers for the second and last time of the season.

The Avalanche are coming off a 3-1 win over the Carolina Hurricanes. They’re 2-0-1 on the roadie so far and 5-1-2 overall on the season. In their first game against the Flyers, at home on October 6, the Avalanche won 5-2 thanks to some secondary scoring (two Colin Wilson goals and a J.T. Compher tally.)

The Flyers are dead even at 4-4-0. They’re coming off a 5-2 victory over the New Jersey Devils. Five different Flyers scored in that game.

How to Enjoy the Game

Game time: October 22, 5:00 pm MT
TV Networks: Altitude TV, TVAS, SN (Flyers feed)
Radio: Altitude Radio (FM 92.5)

Secondary Scoring

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It has been a lot of fun watching captain Gabriel Landeskog score six goals in the last three games. Watching Mikko Rantanen spoil Nathan MacKinnon’s chance at a Hart Trophy — because our Finn is just too dominant to let our star center carry the team — has also been a blast.

However, it’s time to get real with the secondary scoring. The Colorado Avalanche cannot live on one line and the goalie forever. Not for a second season in a row anyway.

Just like anyonw else, I’d like to see our second line of Alexander Kerfoot, Tyson Jost and Colin Wilson get going. However, I’d like to see a little defenseman scoring, too. So far, while they’ve racked up some assists, not a single Avs defenseman has score. That included Tyson Barrie.

Creating Some Defense

Aside from the top pairing of Erik Johnson and Samuel Girard, the Avalanche defense hasn’t been busy creating a lot of defense either. So far, Semyon Varlamov has faced 173 shots in five games, while Philipp Grubauer has faced 107 shots in three games.

That’s an average of 34.6 shots for Varlamov and 35.6 for Grubauer. In other words, too many.

It’s not just the defensemen who need to step up. The Colorado Avalanche started out strong defensively as a team. However, that commitment to defense has been the first thing to go in their game. They need to tighten up on the forechecking and backchecking to keep up with their winning ways, especially on the road.

Facing New Defensive Pairings

Speaking of defense, the Philadelpha Flyers have a pretty good one. It all starts with a pair of gifted d-men named Shayne Gostisbehere and Ivan Provorov. They wrecked havoc last season as a pairing. But they’ve been shuffled.

Now, according to The Inquirer, Gostisbehere is skating with Christian Folin, while Provorov is paired with Robert Hagg. The move is meant to pair the puck-moving youngster with a stay-at-home defenseman.

And it appears to be working. In the game against the New Jersey Devils, the Flyers allowed just 21 shots. Boy, that would be a vacation in the land of Colorado goalies.

After tonight’s game, the Colorado Avalanche head home for two games. They have their first back-to-back game when they face the Ottawa Senators at home and travel to Minnesota to face the Wild the next day.