Mile High Sticking
Fansided

Colorado Avalanche Get Youth Infusion for Minnesota Game

By Nadia Archuleta

NEW YORK, NEW YORK - FEBRUARY 09: A.J. Greer #24 of the Colorado Avalanche skates against the New York Islanders at the Barclays Center on February 09, 2019 in the Brooklyn borough of New York City. The Islanders defeated the Avalanche 4-3. (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)
NEW YORK, NEW YORK - FEBRUARY 09: A.J. Greer #24 of the Colorado Avalanche skates against the New York Islanders at the Barclays Center on February 09, 2019 in the Brooklyn borough of New York City. The Islanders defeated the Avalanche 4-3. (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images) /
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The Colorado Avalanche face their most hated of Central Division rivals, the Minnesota Wild, in a game both teams need to win to stay in the playoff race.

The Colorado Avalanche are in Minnesota tonight. They’re playing the team, the Wild, whom they’re trying to leapfrog to get one step closer to leapfrogging Arizona out of the final wild card spot.

Today’s game won’t determine that. Three points separate the Avalanche and the Wild, so they can’t leapfrog today. If they lost, though… well, that won’t be pretty.

Minnesota hasn’t exactly been crushing it in the standings recently, though they have been better than the Avs at accumulating points. They’ve gone 4-3-3 in the last 10 games, compared to 4-5-1 for the Avs. If only Colorado hadn’t lost all those overtime games.

Colorado has gone 1-2 this season against the Wild. Needless to say, they’d like to even up the score in this final game between the two teams.

How to Enjoy the Game

Game time: Mar 19, 6:00 pm MT
TV Networks: ALT,  FSN+ (Wild’s Feed)
Radio: Altitude Radio (FM 92.5)

Hodge Podge Lineup

In the game against the New Jersey Devils, the Avalanche went with what Mike Chambers of the Denver Post called a “beer league” lineup — 11 forwards and seven defensemen. I know they’ve run a similar roster before. Jared Bednar’s rationale was the following:

"“There’s something about that that just kind of takes you out of your routine–you’re playing center sometimes, wing at other times. It becomes difficult, but it helps you stay focused and I think it can give them a little juice too as a lineup because you’re playing with someone new every shift.”"

I’m going to reserve judgement for two reasons. One, it allowed Ryan Graves to get back into the lineup. The youngster suited up in place of Andrew Agozzino. Two, the hodgepodge worked.

It looks like the team will be running that roster again, though no telling yet if the lines and pairings will be the same:

Philipp Grubauer will be in net again after is shutout.

AJ Greer with the Team

Yesterday the Colorado Avalanche recalled AJ Greer from the Colorado Eagles:

Poor guy. He sure looks weighted down in that second picture. Anyway, no word yet on if he’ll play. I think we’d all put him in for Gabriel Bourque in the above roster. And also hope he gets more than 5 minutes of playing time.

Next. Rollercoaster of Tyson Barrie. dark

State of Minneflowta

Matt Calvert cut his hair too soon. He should have kept his mullet until this game so he could partake in the State of Minneflowta contest:

To be honest, I don’t think his cabbage would have even placed in the All Hockey Hair team, but he could have still provided the comic relief.

After tonight’s game, the Colorado Avalanche have another important Central Division game, this time against the Dallas Stars.

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