Colorado Avalanche: Who Knows What will Happen vs Vegas?

The Colorado Avalanche will hopefully answer some questions about this season with their home game against the Vegas Golden Knights.

The Colorado Avalanche will be hosting the Vegas Golden Knights this evening. Instead of “What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas,” we have a case of “Who knows what’s going to happen against Vegas.”

The Avalanche could play a tight game or get blown out of the water. They could blow a lead, or come back from behind. They could lose in overtime. They could win. They could even blow Vegas out of the water.

I know all those things are possible in any game. However, the Colorado Avalanche seem to be getting their cues from the weather, which is notoriously fickle. It starts sunny and turns to snow, just to turn sunny again. And it snows a foot when it’s supposed to dust and barely coat the ground when it’s supposed to be a blizzard.

Yeah, I guess I see where the players get their inspiration. So, rather than keys to the game — because,  🤷‍♀️ — let’s look at some questions going into tonight’s game.

BREAKING NEWS (at the time of writing): The Colorado Avalanche have reassigned Sheldon Dries and Dominic Toninato (both 24 years old) to the AHL in favor of recalling Andrew Agozzino. I’m going to call that one of those days that’s rain and sunshine at the same time.

Also: WHAT HAPPENED TO THE YOUTH MOVEMENT?! Yes, I get Agozzino has put up great numbers at the AHL level — he’s a career AHLer. But that’s for a reason, and I thought we were going to see what young prospects might make the team.

WEATHER UPDATE: It was a mix of sunshine and snow when I left for work this morning.  I don’t know what that means for the fate of the Avs.tonight, but it does show you how unstable our weather is.

Ok, anyway, back to the other questions of the game.

How to Enjoy the Game

Game time: February 18, 7:00 pm MT
TV Networks: ALT,  ATTSN-RM (Knights’ Feed)
Radio: Altitude Radio (FM 92.5)

Do We Have a Legit Fourth Line?

Well, that question got answered with the breaking news above. I thought Dominic Toninato played beautifully with A.J. Greer and Sven Andrighetto in the game against the Winnipeg Jets.

It’s not that the line played poorly in the home game aginst St. Louis. It’s just that they’re a fourth line, and you can’t expect your fourth line to have a big impact every night. That’s what the first line is for.

Speaking of…

Do We Have a Legit First Line?

And by that, I mean, will they ever dominate again? Or even score again? The captain, Gabriel Landeskog, did score in Winnipeg after an eight-game drought. He tends to score in bunches, but the bunch didn’t include the St. Louis game.

Mikko Rantanen hasn’t scored in the last five games. Nathan MacKinnon has one goal in five games.

Do We Have a Legit Second Line?

I’m going to subtitle this, “Stop expecting Tyson Jost to save the team.” For the love of hockey, unless the kid starts scoring hat tricks every night, Avs fans are going to keep agitating to throw him away like over-ripe fruit.

Let’s talk about J.T. Compher for a moment. There’s a kid young man who needs to get his game in order. First he took that atrocious four-minute minor for essentially crosschecking a Leafs player. He played well against Winnipeg then played a disastrous game against St. Louis.

As for Alexander Kerfoot… I hardly notice him anymore. I’d like to notice him again.

What’s Going on with Goal Tending?

No, really, what’s going on? Who will be in net? How will he play? Will he be a brick wall? A sieve? A brick wall then a sieve? Will he be a sieve at which time the backup comes in and plays like a brick wall — only to see the team fail to score in front of him?

Will we ever see Pavel Francouz play a full game?

After tonight, the Colorado Avalanche have one more home game, against eh Jets, before heading off for a back-to-back in Chicago then Nashville.