Colorado Avalanche Must Stick it to the Minnesota Wild

The Colorado Avalanche need a victory against the Minnesota Wild both for points in the standings and for spiritual fulfillment.

The Colorado Avalanche need more than a moral victory against the (hated) Minnesota Wild tonight, one in which they outplay the opponent but still manage to lose.

The Avs need to beat the Wild, and they need to do so decisively. We need this victory spiritually. And we need this victory standings-wise. While we weren’t looking, the Mild, er, Wild somehow leapfrogged us into third in the Central Division. We’re not even fourth — that’s the Stars.

Colorado is hanging on to a playoff spot by virtue of having one game in hand over the Vancouver Canucks. So, yeah, the Avs need a win tonight.

You already know the last handful of games haven’t been kind to Colorado. It’s a total case of two steps forward, one step back. They’re 3-6-1 in the last 10 games and 4-10-2 since that terrible New York Islanders game.

Colorado is coming off that disheartening loss against the Nashville Predators at home — one of those moral victory games. The Wild, meanwhile, are coming off a mini winning streak of two games during which time they beat the Vegas Golden Knights and Columbus Blue Jackets.

Anyway, I already went into the goal tending crisis in detail here:

That’s probably the main key to Colorado winning tonight. However, let’s look at a couple more key factors.

How to Enjoy the Game

Game time: January 23, 7:30 pm MT
TV Networks: ALT, FS-N, FS-WI (Wild’s’ Feed)
Radio: Altitude Radio (FM 92.5)

Top Line Dominance

The Colorado Avalanche have the best top line in the NHL, or that’s the narrative anyway. The trio of Nathan MacKinnon, Mikko Rantanen, and Gabriel Landeskog have combined for 197 points (79 goals, 118 assists).

Meanwhile, Minnesota’s top three scorers have combined for 115 points (47 goals, 68 assists). That’s… less impressive. Indeed, Minnesota’s goal differential is -3 while Colorado’s is +10.

So, it’s clear that the Avalanche have the firepower to beat out Minnesota. It just takes one — one extra goal, Avs.

Secondary Scoring

Tonight’s strategy should be to just score, score, and then score some more. Colorado’s defense is hobbling along. Indeed, according to Jared Bednar’s plan, as detailed in Ryan Clark’s article, Colorado’s defensive plan hinges on the forwards backchecking and ultimately committing to defensive play.

So, in other words, a team built to rely on a high-octane offense had better just score a lot of goals than count on solid defensive play to bail them out. This is especially true when our best defenseman, Erik Johnson, is out during concussion protocol.

Side note, Johnson is skating in no-contact red just days after taking a puck to the jaw in the Pyrrhic victory that was the Avs-Kings game:

Anyway, the point is, with our goal tending crisis and… creative defensive strategy, we can’t count on the Colorado Avalanche limiting goals. So, we have to go back to the idea of just scoring like gang busters.

So, whether that’s Tyson “You Hate Me ‘Til I Score” Barrie or Gabriel “You Just Hate Me” Bourque, Colorado needs secondary scoring in addition to  top line dominance.

Or, you know, watch this be a 1-0 game. The hockey gods can be so fickle.

Anyway, tonight marks the third of four meetings between Colorado and Minnesota. Each team has won at home. The fourth and final meeting will be in March in Minnesota,