Avalanche at Canucks
Twenty minutes from setting a franchise record for consecutive home wins, the Colorado Avalanche saw their chance to make history unravel against the reigning NHL MVP. After having their 10-game home winning streak halted by Connor McDavid and Edmonton, the Avalanche look to regroup when they visit the Vancouver Canucks on Tuesday night.
"We got to dial our game up just like everybody else is this time of year, and we haven't done that yet recently," Colorado coach Jared Bednar said after the 4-2 loss to the Oilers. "We should be getting more and more urgency out of our group now because we are starting to fall in the standings. If we want to stay in it, we are going to have to dial it up." A rematch against Edmonton will be part of a three-game road trip through Western Canada for the Avalanche, who lost at Vancouver 4-3 in overtime on Jan. 30 in its fourth straight defeat in the series (0-2-2). The Canucks have dropped six of their last eight games (2-6-0), scoring 10 goals in the losses while looking like world-beaters in the two victories over a pair of the league's hottest teams. Vancouver is coming off a 6-1 rout of visiting Boston on Saturday, six days removed from a 6-0 mauling of Dallas.
TV: 10 p.m. ET, Altitude (Colorado), Sportsnet Pacific (Vancouver)
ABOUT THE AVALANCHE (31-23-4): Leading scorer Nathan MacKinnon returned to the lineup versus Edmonton following an eight-game absence and said he "felt fine" after logging 22-plus minutes, but Colorado was struck by two more injuries. Defensemen Erik Johnson and Anton Lindholm were both hurt in Sunday's loss and have been ruled out indefinitely with upper-body injuries. “It is what it is. We play with the players that we have," Bednar said. "Different guys are going to have to step up if we’re going to win.”
ABOUT THE CANUCKS (23-30-6): Loui Eriksson, a 30-goal scorer for Boston during the 2015-16 campaign, scored twice against his former teammates to end a 10-game drought and reached double digits for the 11th consecutive season. Daniel Sedin has scored in back-to-back games to match last season's goal total with 15 and is tied for the team lead with 19 points in 13 games since the start of the 2018 calendar year. At Monday's practice session, Sven Baertschi was back on the line with Bo Horvat and rookie Brock Boeser.
OVERTIME
1. Avalanche G Jonathan Bernier, who suffered a head injury in Friday's loss, did not accompany the team to Vancouver.
2. The Canucks have killed off 15 of 16 short-handed situations in the past five games.
3. Avalanche rookie F Alexander Kerfoot returns to his native Vancouver on a roll, scoring in three of the past four games.