Colorado Avalanche Looking to Stave Off Losing Skid in St. Louis

The Colorado Avalanche are hoping for some redemption as the visit the St. Louis Blues in the first game of a back-to-back series.

The Colorado Avalanche have lost twice in a row. Scratch that — they got blown out twice in a row. The Tampa Bay Lightning schooled them 7-1. The 6-4 score against the Edmonton Oilers was only made respectable in the last couple minutes.

The Avalanche have slipped down in the standings after that two-game losing skid, thus proving just how ridiculous the Central Division is. They’re now third in the Central.

St. Louis is trying to find its way. They’ve won two of the last three, including against the tough Winnipeg team that leap-frogged the Avalanche in the standings.

How to Enjoy the Game

Game time: December 14, 6:00 pm MT
TV Networks: Alt2 , FS-MW  (Blues’ feed)
Radio: Altitude Radio (FN 92.5)

Don’t Play Down to Opponents

I said it in my last game preview for the Avalanche-Blues game, and I’m going to say it again. The St. Louis Blues are a legit NHL team with legit NHL players. The Colorado Avalanche must take them seriously.

That’s not the Colorado way. The Avs have a tendency to play down to their opponents. The Blues are currently seen to be in a tailspin, but it’snot even that bad. They’re not even the worst team in the Central Division (that’s the Blackhawks), much less the NHL.

The hope is that the Avalanche are still smarting from their overtime loss to the Blues on home ice. Hopefully they use that as impetus to play their game in St. Louis. Because when the Avs play their game, they can best any team in the NHL. They should be able to make chop suey out of the reeling Blues.

Rest and Reset

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The Avs didn’t hold a full practice on Wednesday after their loss to Edmonton, which I thought was odd. I felt if ever there was a day to get back to basics, it was after those two losses.

I guess logistically it made more sense for the Avs to use that day to “rest and reset” and use yesterday as a full practice day. That way they could conveniently travel to St. Louis directly after practice.

During a post-practice presser, Matt Calvert said of their practice day, “We touched on the Edmonton game a little bit, we watched video.” He remarked that the game plan in St. Louis was similar to any other — focus on playing their game and getting a good start. He added:

“When we start hard usually we get the result at the end of the game, so we’ve got to really focus on our first few shifts next game in St. Louis.”

Losing two games in a row doesn’t mean it’s time to hit the panic button, even though they were blown out. Losing three doesn’t either. However, the game in St. Louis is against a Central Division rival, and Colorado has already slid to third in the division.

Goalie Reset

You know who really needs a reset after those two games? The Colorado Avalanche goalies. Neither was sharp in either game.

Philipp Grubauer is set to start tonight against the Blues. This is his chance to shine. I’m not saying he has the chance to steal Semyon Varlamov’s job. However, he has a chance to win some more starts.

After tonight, the Colorado Avalanche head home to face another division rival, the Dallas Stares, in the second game of a back-to-back series. That game will be the start of a four-game home stand that the team will hopefully use to collect some more points.