Colorado will need to replay the game against Boston from 10 days ago to earn two points.
Colorado will need to replay the game against Boston from 10 days ago to earn two points.
The Colorado Avalanche and Boston Bruins are tied with 61 points and face off against each other for the second and final time this season on Thursday night.
The teams met at Ball Arena just 10 days ago with the Avalanche coming out victorious in a shootout. However, a few things have changed with the team in just a week and a half.
[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T0sY05Q24bY[/embed]
Valeri Nichushkin, who scored the shootout game-winner, is away from the team receiving treatment in the NHL Player Assistance Program. His presence has been missed and will be even more apparent in this matchup.
The teams' first meeting was a game that had "everything," according to Jared Bednar. He said he used it as a "blueprint" to show his players how to earn two points.
"Both teams played hard, highly competitive, 200-foot disciplined hockey. It was a heck of a game," the Avs head coach said. "It was actually probably the one game that sticks out to me as like playoff sort of intensity style — goes right down to the wire, little bit of everything in that game. And I loved the way our guys played."
Colorado managed a 7-4 win against the Ottawa Senators Tuesday and this matchup is the third game in just four days. Fatigue could be a factor but Alexandar Georgiev has gotten some rest and he'll start between the pipes.
Mikko Rantanen scored in the 4-3 shootout win on Jan. 8 and said it was "probably the best 60 minutes we played all year."
"I feel like we were connected. All the lines on the forecheck, really hungry on the forecheck, connected group," Rantanen said after the win against Boston last week. "We were three forwards close to each other and if we do that then our D can stay up on their forwards and we can just keep them playing defense. I think that's why we were really good against Boston."
Cale Makar could tie Bobby Orr's record or set a new one for fewest games by a defenseman to reach 300 points — Orr did it in 279 games and this is Makar's 279th game. The 25-year-old has 298 points so he would need to tally two to tie.
Projected lineup
Although Artturi Lehkonen and Bowen Byram traveled with the team, Bednar said they're not ready to go yet. Lehkonen has been rehabilitating an upper-body injury for more than eight weeks and Byram has been out with a lower-body injury for nearly two weeks.
Jonathan Drouin — Nathan MacKinnon — Mikko Rantanen
Miles Wood — Ross Colton — Logan O’Connor
Andrew Cogliano — Ryan Johansen — Joel Kiviranta
Kurtis MacDermid — Fredrik Olofsson — Jason Polin
Devon Toews — Cale Makar
Samuel Girard — Josh Manson
Jack Johnson — Sam Malinski
Alexandar Georgiev
Justus Annunen
Puck drops at 5 p.m. MT at TD Garden in Boston.
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