Colorado Avalanche Facing Game 82 Situation with Vancouver

The Colorado Avalanche must beat the Vancouver Canucks if they want to retain their position in the playoff bracket.

The Colorado Avalanche are facing a do-or-die, winner takes all situation similar to Game 82 last year against the St. Louis Blues. Granted, today’s match is Game 50, but it’s still a winner takes all game.

Or, in this case, winner takes the wild card spot. The Vancouver Canucks have the exact same amount of points as the Avs but are on the outside looking in because Colorado has a game in hand. Any kind of loss on the Avalanche’s part tonight, though, means Vancouver will have more points. And it will be the Avalanche on the outside looking in.

And that’s a slippery slope considering how the team has been playing lately.

The Avalanche are hosting the Canucks for the first time this season. The two teams previously met in Vancouver on November 2, a game Vancouver won in overtime 7-6. It was one of the first indicators that the Avs might have a goalie issue.

In fact, let’s look at the main questions going into tonight’s game.

How to Enjoy the Game

Game time: February 2, 8:00 pm MT
TV Networks: ALT2,  CBC, SN, SN360, SN1, CITY, (Canucks’ Feed)
Radio: Altitude Radio (AM 950)

Was the Rest and Reset Successful?

Ever since The Slide began in mid-December, the Avalanche have talked on and off about putting the past behind them. That’s pretty normal. However, they often package the philosophy as a “rest and reset.”

Resting and hitting the reset button has been how the team tries to slow down and even turn around The Slide that went from their challenging for second place in the Central to barely holding on to the final Wild Card berth.

Well, everyone on the team had at least a week to rest. Of course, unfortunately for them, so did the Canucks. So, which team will be more rested and ready to reset?

What about Goal Tending?

Yeah, that’s been the big question this season. Both Semyon Varlamov and Philip Grubauer have shown flashes of brilliance. But lately, they’ve been big contributors to The Slide.

At the time of writing, Jared Bednar had not tapped a goalie for the start against Vancouver. If I had to guess, I’d say Varlamov. So it will probably be Grubauer because I’m usually wrong.

Honestly, just choose one and hope he gets hot. That’s our best hope.

What Kind of Wonky Lines…?

Good news! Defenseman Erik Johnson practiced yesterday in full contact. It looks good he’ll play tonight, and probably on a pairing with his usual partner, Sam Girard.

Mediocre news: Mark Barberio is back to being injured. He’s been battling a head injury, which is the new code for concussion. That may be why his play has been off recently. Otherwise, the blueline looks to be the usual.

We have some new fresh wonk on the forward lines, though. Here’s how they lined up at practice:

Colin Wilson – Nathan MacKinnon – Alexander Kerfoot
Gabriel Landeskog – Carl Soderberg – Mikko Rantanen
Matt Calvert – J.T. Compher – Matt Nieto
Sven Andrighetto – Sheldon Dries – Gabriel Bourque

Even Bednar admits he’s just experimenting:

"“We all know that our top line has been together for most of the year. They have been doing a really nice job. They continue to click along, but the team hasn’t had a lot of success here recently so we are trying something new.”"

Well, that’s a group of 12 forwards broken up into groups of three. I mean, the configuration of those lines goes beyond the salad spinner approach — I’m guessing there was a hat and names written on slips of paper involved in forming those lines.

Anyway, they won’t be together as above for more than three shifts, so it really doesn’t matter.

In case you’re wondering, Tyson Jost is injured.

After tonight, the Colorado Avalanche have two days off before hosting the Columbus Blue Jackets on Tuesday. They’ll play Vancouver just one more time, at Pepsi Center at the end of the month.