The Avalanche have been unable to play well for a full 60 minutes and the team is focused on fixing that issue.
Penalties contributed to Colorado's loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs and head coach Jared Bednar said that special teams were a focus going into Tuesday's game.
"Special teams are huge, both PP (power play) and PK (penalty kill) because we're losing on — like there's a lot of effort going into those two areas recently because we felt like, again on the road trip we didn't check like we wanted to. We had a big meeting about 5-on-5 play. I feel like our guys have really dug in there. The numbers support that. The defending details, the intensity that we're checking with now is much better," Bednar said. "And now we're losing on the special team side of it. So you have to put the whole package together in order to win hockey games, especially when you're playing teams like Dallas — another team top 10 specialty teams on both sides of it. Super dangerous so we're going to need a big kill here in there tonight. We'll need a big power play goal here and there tonight, our 5-on-5 game's got to be rock solid or you're not going to win."
The Stars are coming off an overtime loss in Dallas on Monday night, so their energy may be a bit depleted. The intensity is expected to be high no matter as they're fighting to keep the top spot in the Central Division.
"For us, it's just managing the game well, kind of do a good job maybe in the first five to 10 minutes kind of set the tone and go from there," Ross Colton said.
Colton's line — Miles Wood on the left and Logan O'Connor on the right — consistently brings energy and should be even higher with home-ice advantage for a division rival game.
"We just have good chemistry. You know I think ever since he put us together from kind of early on in the season," Colton said. "We're good friends off the ice, I think it translates out there so for us it's just doing a good job of putting pucks behind their D, forechecking hard. I thought we deserved a couple last game, but came up short so just stick with it and they'll come."
Not only is this an important game in the standings, Ryan Johansen said it's impactful for this time of year and can be "inspiring" for players.
The 31-year-old forward said the team addressed some things after the loss to the Leafs and "threw that one in the trash" to be able to move forward and prepare for the Stars game.
"We just know they're going to throw everything at us, and empty out their tanks and do everything they can to get some points," Johansen said. "We just got to make sure we're ready for that and deliver a game of our brand and how we want to play and find a way to get a win."
The Avs beat the Stars twice at American Airlines Center on Nov. 18 (6-3) and Jan. 4 (5-4 OT). The teams face each other one more time after Tuesday's game on April 7 at Ball Arena.
Projected lineup
Bednar will most likely shift things around on lines for this matchup to see what fits. Valeri Nichushkin's return to the lineup — no timeline yet — will shift them again so it will give the Avs' head coach an idea of how he wants to make those changes.
Artturi Lehkonen — Nathan MacKinnon — Mikko Rantanen
Miles Wood — Ross Colton — Logan O’Connor
Zach Parise — Ryan Johansen — Jonathan Drouin
Andrew Cogliano — Chris Wagner — Joel Kiviranta
Devon Toews — Cale Makar
Samuel Girard — Josh Manson
Jack Johnson — Bowen Byram
Alexandar Georgiev
Justus Annunen
Puck drops at 7:30 MT.
Recent Colorado Avalanche articles
'We obviously missed him out there': What Valeri Nichushkin's return means to Colorado Avalanche
Mikko Rantanen hits milestone in Avalanche disappointing loss to Toronto Maple Leafs
Avalanche fall 2-1 in OT to Red Wings, Cale Makar takes blame for loss