Pre-Game Talk: The week we lost our captain - FLA / DAL / @ARZ

[Cousin Eddie]

Would rather see Bura with Naz and Nate, and Donnie with Jost and JTC.

It’ll happen. When Donskoi starts going in and trying to dangle around 3 players with Nate and Kadri open we’re probably going to see Mackinnon freak out and they’ll be split up.

 

[Avs71]

Just listened to Bednars presser. Sounds like he wants to play Kadri on Nate's LW. He wants a player similar to Landeskog there who can take some defensive responsibilities for him.

So I'm guessing

Kadri-Mack-Donk
Bura-Jost-Compher
Nieto-Bellemare-Calvert
Nuke-Kam-Shmegma

Ugly lineup.

Hoping the team can learn to win without two of the best players, in the short term. If the team can stay above .500 for the next while, it will be fun to see what adding two All-Stars does.

 

[UncleRisto]

Kuznetsov likes this

That's a little too in the nose.

 

[tshack]

D and goalies are going to have to carry us

Ugly lineup.

Hoping the team can learn to win without two of the best players, in the short term. If the team can stay above .500 for the next while, it will be fun to see what adding two All-Stars does.

Could you imagine if this happened the last 2 years? Thank goodness we finally went out and added some depth. Also Calvert sold his soul to become a sniper apparently.

 

[the_fan]

All the talk about Avs good start and how they have a cushion and stuff, they're like 3 points to be out of a playoff picture and dont really have games in hand anymore. This is really gonna be a tough stretch for this team until Landeskog and Mikko get healthy.

 

[Avs9296]

We'll be fine. Landy was ass this year so far anyways and Rants will be back soon.

We'll need some secondary scoring help from our dmen Makar Girard even Zads can chip in from time to time.

 

[Cousin Eddie]

Meh whatever. I’m actually super excited to see Naz and Mackinnon play together. I have a feeling Donskoi won’t last long.

 

[TruePowerSlave]

All the talk about Avs good start and how they have a cushion and stuff, they're like 3 points to be out of a playoff picture and dont really have games in hand anymore. This is really gonna be a tough stretch for this team until Landeskog and Mikko get healthy.

The Avs are still a top 3 team in the Central. 5 points ahead of Winnipeg with 2 games in hand + 6 points ahead of Dallas with 3 games in hand. Chicago and Minnesota are toast.

 

[SaltySkywalker]

Kuznetsov likes this

Let's be honest, I think we aaaaall like it.

 

[NOTENOUGHJTCGOALS]

It's a good time to point out if the Aves hadn't lost the lottery twice we could have Kakko and Hischier stepping into big roles. Instead of Byram being an enforcer in the WHL and Cale "not quinn hughes" Makar.

 

[Raucherhusten]

Jost will score his 2nd, 3rd and 4th career hat-trick this week so i'm not scared ...

ok, maybe a little

 

[forsbergavs32]

Not sure I’m a fan of putting all our eggs in one basket with Kadri on Mack’s wing. We’re back to having 1 good line, a 3rd line and 2 4th lines. If it were me considering Lando, Rants and Wilson are out...

Calvert-Mack-Donk
Bura-Kadri-JTC
Kam-Jost-Nuke
Nieto-Belle-Megna

Calvert is hot right now so he gives that shooter on the wing and a tough defensive guy for Mack and Donkey. 2nd line gives Kadri the best remaining wingers. The bottom 6 isn’t all that but the 4th line should still do some damage.

 

[the_fan]

The Avs are still a top 3 team in the Central. 5 points ahead of Winnipeg with 2 games in hand + 6 points ahead of Dallas with 3 games in hand. Chicago and Minnesota are toast.

Yeah I guess I forgot the top 3 division alignment. I was looking at point totals between top teams and wild card teams and Avs are only 2 or 3 points ahead of wildcard

 

[shadow1]

I expect the Avs lines to be a mishmash tonight. They’ll start like what we’ve seen reported, but then we’ll get shifts of the Kadri line back together, and MacKinnon getting double shifted with a strange combo of wingers. When Rantanen comes back, hopefully next week, I fully expect the lines to be:

Compher - MacKinnon - Rantanen
Burakovsky - Kadri - Donskoi
Nichushkin- Jost - Wilson(health pending)
Nieto - Bellemare - Calvert

 

[henchman21]

Will it blend?

 

[SirLoinOfCloth]

I expect the Avs lines to be a mishmash tonight. They’ll start like what we’ve seen reported, but then we’ll get shifts of the Kadri line back together, and MacKinnon getting double shifted with a strange combo of wingers. When Rantanen comes back, hopefully next week, I fully expect the lines to be:

Compher - MacKinnon - Rantanen
Burakovsky - Kadri - Donskoi
Nichushkin- Jost - Wilson(health pending)
Nieto - Bellemare - Calvert

I'd rather see Mack moved to wing and Kadri brought up to center the top line. Kadri plays a similar game to Landy in getting into those dirty areas around the crease. Plus he is a monster in the faceoff circle and getting puck possession to the rest of the top unit wouldn't hurt.

Mack - Kadri - Rantanen

 

[The Kingslayer]

Let's be honest, I think we aaaaall like it.

I aint judging.

 

[forsbergavs32]

I'd rather see Mack moved to wing and Kadri brought up to center the top line. Kadri plays a similar game to Landy in getting into those dirty areas around the crease. Plus he is a monster in the faceoff circle and getting puck possession to the rest of the top unit wouldn't hurt.

Mack - Kadri - Rantanen

He’ll be taking faceoffs on the left side so it doesn’t really matter either way, Bednar is weird about that.

 

[Avs_19]

2. Colorado Avalanche (four first-place votes)

Record: 8-2-2
Previous Ranking: No. 9

The early Western Conference darlings, the Avalanche face a mighty test with the loss of Mikko Rantanen and Gabriel Landeskog to injury.

Also:

And then there’s Cale Makar, who is tied for the rookie lead in points with 10 and is already making observers shake their head in wonder. “The question really is how many Norris Trophies is he going to be able to fit in his house,” one scout said. “He is unreal.”

That's a very good question!

 

[Avsboy]

He'll probably have a trophy room