Colorado Avalanche Will Find Their Way Against Florida

The Colorado Avalanche will have to find a way to win without two of their top players in the lineup.

The Colorado Avalanche are short a couple wings. Unfortunately, it’s their best wings who are missing. Both Mikko Rantanen and now Gabriel Landeskog are out with injuries.

So’s Colin Wilson, but at this point, that’s just an annoyance.

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All teams suffer from injuries. In fact, the St. Louis Blues just found out their star forward, Vladimir Tarasenko, is out for the season. And the Pittsburgh Penguins have been without star forward Evgeni Malkin since the second game, though apparently he’s been secretly applying for American citizenship and participating in cryptocurrency scams.

Compared to that, week-to-week for Rantanen and significantly more — though not season-ending — for Landeskog seems pretty minor. At least they’re not navigating the black web.

Anyway, concerning hockey, the Avs have a game tonight against the Florida Panthers, and they’ll be doing it without their star wingers.

I’m going to go out on a limb here and say the Colorado Avalanche absolutely can win this game tonight, for numerous reasons.

Previous Experience

The Avs were blessed earlier in the season with no injuries, but they’re no strangers to having to play without their stars. Why, just last season, they played without Mikko Rantanen for a while and without Gabriel Landeskog for a while. They even had to do without both for a spell.

Here’s how they fared:

Why, it almost looks like they do better without their star players. Just kidding! But, they know how to win in unideal circumstances.

Bounceback Win

Tonight’s game represents a bounceback game for the Avs on two levels. For one, they came out flat Saturday night against the Anaheim Ducks. They’ll want to show they’re not a flat team.

For two, they just lost their star winger and captain, Landeskog. They always play especially well after losing one of their best players. The remaining players all draw together and play the game the right way.

Players Stepping Up

And that right way is players are going to have to step up. They simply have to pull together and play their best game — their remaining star, Nathan MacKinnon, said as much in his post-game presser.

At practice, the Colorado Avalanche ran their lines like this:

Kadri-MacKinnon-Donskoi

Burakovsky-Jost-Compher

Kamenev-Wilson-Nichushkin

Nieto-Bellemare-Calvert

I don’t hate those lines as much as some fans. Joonas Donsoi has played with MacKinnon before, and Kadri is next in line for talent and skill after the top 3. Tyson Jost centering Andre Burakovsky and JT Compher is also intriguing — I think that line could work very well together.

The bottom six are going to have to change with the injury to Wilson. Colorado called up Jayson Megna from the Colorado Eagles. He’s a center/right wing, and I imagine he’s destined for the fourth line. Matt Nieto started the season on the third line, so I wouldn’t be surprised to see him there.

No matter where each of these players land, they’re simply going to have to play a tight game within the system because none of them are really used to playing with their current linemates.

How to Enjoy the Game

Game time: Oct. 30, 8:00 pm MT
TV: ALT2*, ESPN+, FS-F (Cats’ feed)
Radio: Altitude Radio (FM 92.5/AM 950)

*The Big 3 carriers have colluded to block Altitude TV from being broadcast in the Denver Metro area. At least some other local sports bars, such as Blake Street Tavern, are also showing the games.

This is the second and final meeting between the two teams. Colorado previously won 5-4 in overtime.