The Colorado Avalanche square off against the Edmonton Oilers on Tuesday night. The Avalanche have one five-straight games heading into the game, while Edmonton is riding on just a one-game win streak. Earlier in the season, Colorado destroyed the Oilers by a score of 9-1.
In that matchup, Colorado sprayed Edmonton with 34 shots on goal. They succeeded against Stuart Skinner early on, scoring four goals on 13 shots and forcing Edmonton to yank Skinner from the game in favour of former Avalanche Calvin Pickard. That didn’t help, as the Avs put the puck in the net another five times against Pickard. It was just an absolute beatdown.
The only special teams goals that the Avalanche scored on, surprisingly, was a shorthanded goal by Parker Kelly on a backhand shot. The Oilers’ only goal was on their power play, by Connor McDavid assisted by Leon Draisaitl.
Fastforward to today, March 10, and the Avalanche’s penalty kill ranks in the top-3 and has ranked around there for most, if not all, of the season. Edmonton’s penalty kill ranks 24th at 77.4 percent. Edmonton’s power play is at the very top of the league at 32.8 percent, while Colorado’s has struggled throughout the entire year (31st at 15.8 percent), though they’ve recently gone on a solid run.
McDavid has 10 power play goals this season, while Draisaitl has 15. Zach Hyman also has 10. That’s a big concern heading into the game.
Since they last played each other, the trade deadline has passed, and Skinner is now in Pittsburgh, while Colorado has had the luxury of solid goaltending and hasn’t had to make a move. Connor Ingram and Tristan Jarry are in Edmonton now, as the Oilers decided to let go of Pickard, though he went unclaimed on waivers and was reassigned to their AHL team.
Colorado Avalanche vs Edmonton Oilers: The battle of top forwards
It goes without saying that some of the best forwards will take the ice together on Tuesday, when Nathan MacKinnon and Connor McDavid face-off against each other. You can even add guys such as Martin Necas, Brock Nelson, and Leon Draisaitl into the conversation. It’s expected to be an incredible battle.
Both MacKinnon and McDavid have a plan for themselves to be better than each other. High competition makes everybody want to be better for their team, and that’s why this matchup is so golden.
With the Dallas Stars just seven points behind the Avalanche for first place in the Western Conference, this is an important game for Colorado. It’s going to become tougher down the stretch to maintain leads in the division, as teams start getting desperate for points to claim/secure a playoff spot. If the Avalanche want to continue being considered the hottest team in the league, Tuesday’s game against the Oilers will be a must-win.
In their previous meeting, insider Elliotte Friedman claimed that the Avs wanted to make an example out of the Oilers. It would be beneficial for them to do so once again on Tuesday night.