Goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy led the Tampa Bay Lightning to three straight Stanley Cup Finals, winning the Cup twice and then losing to Colorado in 2022, so his absence for the first 20 games this season was felt. Tampa Bay has found some momentum, and now Vasilevskiy is back. He won his first start of the season, 8-2 at Carolina on Friday, and he will be in net when the Lightning visit the Avalanche on Monday
The Calgary Flames and Colorado Avalanche traveled on a similar path over the past week. Both clubs had disappointing losses at Nashville and big victories at Dallas, and each won on the road on Friday night. Something will have to give when the Flames play at the Avalanche on Saturday night in Denver to complete a back-to-back set. Calgary likely is feeling good following its 7-4 win over the Stars on Friday night. The Flames
The Colorado Avalanche received a clear reminder last game about the importance of playing until the final buzzer. As the Avalanche prepare to play host to the Vancouver Canucks in Denver on Wednesday, they are coming off a shocking 4-3 loss to the Nashville Predators. Just as the Avalanche appeared destined to run their winning streak to four games, the Predators scored a pair of goals 16 seconds apart in the final minute of regulation
It’s been nearly a month since the Nashville Predators won back-to-back games. Considering their recent struggles against the surging Colorado Avalanche, achieving that feat when the teams meet Monday night in Nashville likely won’t be easy. Nashville snapped its season-high four-game losing streak with Saturday’s 4-2 victory home victory against Chicago. Cole Smith scored twice, Yakov Trenin had a goal with an assist and Kevin Lankinen made 29 saves for the Predators, who are 3-7-0
Matt Duchene has roamed around the league since successfully demanding to get out of Colorado six years ago, but the veteran looks as if he’s found a home with the Dallas Stars. He will have a brief reunion with his former team when Dallas hosts the Avalanche on Saturday night. The third overall pick by Colorado in 2009, Duchene debuted at 18 and played eight-plus years with the Avalanche before being dealt to Ottawa early
Down 1-0 and with the Kraken having appeared to score another goal, the Colorado Avalanche were reeling early Mondy night in Seattle. But coach Jared Bednar successfully challenged the short-handed tally — a move that seemed to turn things around for Colorado, which scored the next five goals to win 5-1. Instead of losing their third straight game, the Avalanche looked like the team that rolled through the postseason in 2021-22. They will try to
There’s something about the Colorado Avalanche that seems to bring out the best in Oliver Bjorkstrand. The Seattle forward scored twice Thursday, including the go-ahead goal with 32 seconds remaining, to defeat the host Avalanche 4-3. In the Kraken’s previous trip to Denver, Bjorkstrand also tallied twice to eliminate the then-defending Stanley Cup champion Avalanche in Game 7 of a first-round Western Conference playoff series last spring. The teams meet again Monday night in Seattle.
The last time the Seattle Kraken were in Denver, they skated off the ice after winning Game 7 to upset the Colorado Avalanche in the first round of the Western Conference playoffs last season. It was a significant achievement for a team in its second year of existence, but Seattle has sputtered to start the 2023-24 campaign and has dropped its past two games. The Kraken will try to stop their slide when they visit
The Colorado Avalanche injected offense into their lineup in the offseason hoping to alleviate the scoring burden from their top line. It started out well, but now Colorado isn’t getting secondary scoring — or any scoring at all. The Avalanche have lost three of their past four games, getting shut out in all three setbacks, and have hit a funk after starting the season with six straight wins. They will try to break out of
