Colorado Avalanche Need Bounceback Game in Anaheim

The Colorado Avalanche need a road victory against the Anaheim Ducks to keep climbing toward playoff contention.

The Colorado Avalanche are bouncing in and out of the playoff bracket, playing leapfrog with Dallas and Minnesota — and Arizona looks ready to join in. Every point counts.

I wrote the Avalanche off a couple weeks ago, but they came back and are making a surprise run. However, as Altitude TV analyst Mike Rycroft observed after the Jets game in Winnipeg, the team has to win every two out of three to make a real go of making the playoffs.

Well, if you’re counting this as a third game, it’s a must-win. Colorado beat the Canucks in the shootout on February 27 and lost in regulation to the San Jose Sharks on Friday. So, today they need two points.

When you look at Anaheim’s standings at #28 in the NHL, you think this should be easy for Colorado. Well, that’s the problem — the Avalanche can get too casual when they think a team isn’t good enough. And they always have trouble with game management.

This afternoon marks the second of three meetings between the two teams. The last time they met was also in Anaheim, and it was Colorado’s only overtime victory.

Hopefully the game doesn’t get to overtime. But if it does, hopefully they maintain their good juju in Honda Center.

How to Enjoy the Game

Game time: Mar 3, 2:00 pm MT
TV Networks: ALT,  FS-W (Ducks’ Feed)
Radio: Altitude Radio (FM 92.5)

Defensive Battles

The Colorado Avalanche defense was not good enough against the Sharks, and that’s a large part of the reason they lost. At one point, failed clearing attempts led to Sam Girard and Erik Johnson being on the ice for a 3:25 shift — and a Sharks goal.

Part of the problem is that Jared Bednar fixed what wasn’t broken. Ian Cole was ready to return to the lineup. Rather than have the stones to say, “That’s nice, Ian, but we’re winning games, and we want to keep up the momentum,” he replaced Ryan Graves with Cole. Patrik Nemeth also stayed in the lineup.

Both of them made major errors all game long. That’s not to say Graves is perfect, but don’t “fix” what isn’t broken.

That said, the defense needs to be better. I don’t know if Bednar’s going to keep playing Semyon Varlamov or if we’ll see the return of Philipp Grubauer, but either goalie needs some support.

Play a Full 60

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The Colorado Avalanche are going to be tempted to take shifts and maybe a whole period off in the game against the Ducks. After all, the Ducks aren’t that good, and the Avs might be a little tired from having fewer than 48 hours turnaround — especially since it included a practice.

That’s folly. Anaheim isn’t very good, but they’re still an NHL team. They took Colorado to overtime earlier this year, and they have beated Minnesota, Vancouver, and Washington in the last couple weeks.

And, ratio-wise, they play just as well at home as Colorado. Granted, that’s not saying much, but the Ducks do win more at home than on the road.

After today, the Colorado Avalanche head back home to host the (dirty) Detroit Red Wings.