The Colorado Avalanche face off against the Vancouver Canucks in what is expected to be a high energy, high tempo game at Ball Arena.
Despite the difference in points and standings, the Colorado Avalanche and Vancouver Canucks are pretty evenly matched. Both have highly-skilled players and elite two-way defensemen.
Players from both teams are at the top of numerous NHL lists. Here are a few both teams show up on:
Top 10 NHL scorers
No. 2 — Nathan MacKinnon (91)
No. 6 — J.T. Miller (74)
No. 8 — Elias Pettersson (73)
No. 10 — Mikko Rantanen (70)
Top defensemen in scoring
No. 1 — Quinn Hughes (68)
No. 2 — Cale Makar (60)
Top goaltenders in wins
No. 1 — Thatcher Demko (30)
No. 2 — Alexandar Georgiev (29)
"It's the maturity. So in my opinion, they've always been a highly dangerous offensive team with great ability to score and create off the rush, in zone, you know, all of the above. They have superstar players, they're a deep team up front — you mix in guys on the back end like (Filip) Hronek, Hughes — their D helps them produce a lot offensive five-man attack. That's the way you have to I think in this day and age in the NHL," head coach Jared Bednar said. "But their maturity discipline commitment to defend has been extremely good."
The Avalanche beat the Canucks 5-2 on Nov. 22 at Ball Arena and won their last game against the Arizona Coyotes. Vancouver lost to the Minnesota Wild, despite scoring seven goals.
MacKinnon could extend his home point scoring streak if he gets on the scoresheet tonight to 27 games.