Open Thread: Colorado Avalanche at Vancouver Canucks (6:30 p.m.)

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The Colorado Avalanche will welcome the Vancouver Canucks to Ball Arena tonight for a Western Conference matchup. As the NHL regular season nears its end, Colorado’s magic number is six points (three wins) to win the Presidents’ Trophy, and the team is currently leading the race for last place in the league.

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The Avalanche are fresh off a dominant 9-2 performance over the Calgary Flames and will look to secure another win, but this time without Cale Makar, who is out “some time” with an upper-body injury. Vancouver has lost six straight games, including a 4-2 defeat to Vegas their last time out.

Colorado Avalanche: 49-14-10

The Opponent: Vancouver Canucks (21-44-8)

Time: 6:30 p.m. MT

Watch: Altitude, Altitude+, ESPN+

Listen: Altitude Sports Radio, 92.5 FM

Colorado Avalanche

The Avalanche have an ideal situation as they look to win their 50th game of the season tonight. The matchup against Calgary set up as a lopsided one and played out that way. Tonight’s contest leans even harder into that setup.

This might be a good time for the bottom six to work toward some milestones and gobble up some minutes. We are in full-on whale-watch with Parker Kelly having 18 goals this season, just two shy of the 20 required for Guerilla Sports Meghan Angley to adopt an elephant.

The top six are narrowing in on some incredible numbers as well, with Nathan MacKinnon just two goals shy of his previous best (51) in a single season, and Martin Necas nine points shy of 100, which would be a first in his career.

Projected Lineup:

Gabriel Landeskog — Nathan MacKinnon — Artturi Lehkonen
Valeri Nichushkin — Brock Nelson — Martin Necas
Ross Colton — Nazem Kadri — Logan O’Connor
Parker Kelly — Jack Drury — Joel Kiviranta

Brett Kulak — Cale Makar
Devon Toews — Sam Malinski
Josh Manson — Brent Burns

MacKenzie Blackwood
Scott Wedgewood

Vancouver Canucks

The Canucks are in full-on tank mode, although most say that’s not really a thing in hockey. Albeit taboo, when you trade away Quinn Hughes and J.T. Miller but hold Elias Pettersson hostage through a -90 goal differential season with a prospect like Gavin McKenna on the horizon, let’s be honest. I think tanking is exactly what we are seeing in Vancouver, and I don’t blame them. Zeeve Buium and Elias Pettersson should be a good start to the next era, but at what point will Pettersson burn out?

Projected Lineup:

Liam Ohgren — Elias Pettersson — Linus Karlsson
Drew O’Connor — Marco Rossi — Brock Boeser
Evander Kane — Teddy Blueger — Jake DeBrusk
Curtis Douglas — Aatu Raty — Nils Hoglander

Zeev Buium — Filip Hronek
Marcus Pettersson — Tom Willander
Elias Nils Pettersson — Victor Mancini

Kevin Lankinen
Nikita Tolopilo

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