Avalanche at Blackhawks
The Colorado Avalanche's remarkable turnaround from a 48-point 2016-17 season can largely be traced to one player as they visit the Chicago Blackhawks on Tuesday. Nathan MacKinnon could be considered the favorite to win the Hart Trophy after a 12-game point streak has yielded 13 goals and 11 assists, and - more importantly - helped Colorado move into wild-card position in the Western Conference with 10 contests remaining.
MacKinnon scored twice in Sunday's 5-1 victory over Detroit, giving him 38 this season as the Avalanche have won four of five and are 7-1-3 in their last 11 games. "For me, if we get in the playoffs, he's the MVP," Colorado coach Jared Bednar told reporters about MacKinnon, the NHL's Second Star of the week. "I can't imagine there's another player that means more for their team and is doing more for their team than what Nate's doing for us. That's just the way I see it. I mean, he is the driving force to our offense." Chicago is on the verge of missing the playoffs for the first time in 10 seasons, and is 1-4-1 in its last six games after a 5-4 overtime loss to St. Louis on Sunday. "I feel like we've played well and we just came up a little bit short," the Blackhawks' Alex DeBrincat told reporters after setting a club rookie record with his third hat trick of the campaign Sunday. "And I feel like that's been the theme of this whole season."
TV: 8:30 p.m. ET, Altitude (Colorado), NBCS Chicago
ABOUT THE AVALANCHE (39-25-8): MacKinnon, who has 28 points in his last 14 games, Mikko Rantanen and captain Gabriel Landeskog form one of the NHL's elite and fastest lines. Rantanen recorded 13 of his 77 points and three of his 25 goals this season over the last six games while Landeskog (24 goals, 56 points) has two goals and five assists in his past three contests while adding grit. Top defenseman Erik Johnson returned Sunday after missing 13 games with an upper-body injury and was a plus-1 in 19 minutes, 52 seconds of ice time.
ABOUT THE BLACKHAWKS (30-34-9): Chicago was 17-13-5 when goaltender Corey Crawford went down with an upper-body injury as backups Anton Forsberg, Jeff Glass and Jean-Francois Berube haven't been able to keep the club afloat. All three have a goals-against average above 3.00 with Forsberg (.905) the only one with a save percentage above .900. Patrick Kane, who shares the team lead in goals with DeBrincat (25) and has a club-most 69 points, had a four-game point streak (goal, five assists) snapped Sunday.
OVERTIME
1. Colorado on Sunday also welcomed back LW Vladislav Kamenev, who played 10:03 in his first contest since breaking his arm Nov. 16 in his club debut. Kamenev was acquired from Nashville in the Nov. 5 three-team trade that sent Matt Duchene to Ottawa.
2. The Avalanche are 16-for-16 on the penalty kill over their last five games, and lead the NHL at 84.3 percent entering Monday.
3. The teams, who meet again March 30 in Denver, split the first two of four meetings this season with the Blackhawks prevailing 2-1 in overtime March 6 on Jonathan Toews' goal and Colorado winning 6-3 on Oct. 28 as MacKinnon and Rantanen each scored twice.