Avalanche at Ducks
Offense, or lack of, has been the story for both Colorado and Anaheim this season, with the Avalanche featuring one of the league's most potent attacks while the struggling Ducks are next-to-last in the NHL in scoring. Despite the wide disparity in their styles of play, neither team has played well over the past few weeks entering Sunday night's clash in Anaheim.
The Ducks' offensive woes continued in Friday's 2-1 overtime loss to Toronto, their 11th loss during a 14-game stretch (3-8-3) in which they failed to score more than three goals. Anaheim has scored only four times in the past four games, with its lone victory coming in a 2-1 shootout win over Nashville. Colorado halted a five-game slide with a pair of impressive three-goal victories over Edmonton and Boston, but dropped a 3-2 overtime decision to Washington on Friday for its seventh defeat in 10 games (3-5-2). "I think the last little stretch here, we haven't played our best hockey," Avalanche forward Tyson Jost told reporters. "We want to regroup here. We had two really good games and then Washington we took a little break there."
TV: 8 p.m. ET, Altitude (Colorado), Prime Ticket (Anaheim)
ABOUT THE AVALANCHE (9-6-4): Colorado's vaunted No. 1 line of Mikko Rantanen, Nathan MacKinnon and captain Gabriel Landeskog entered the weekend with an NHL-best 75 points but they were held off the scoresheet against the Capitals. Coach Jared Bednar lamented his team's lack of "desperation and urgency" but liked what he saw from his players during Saturday's practice. "Came with a great attitude to work and get better," Bednar told reporters. "That is a good sign for me. ... Now we're on the road for three and try and take six more points."
ABOUT THE DUCKS (8-9-4): Coach Randy Carlyle moved Pontus Aberg, who scored his team-leading sixth goal Friday, to the wing with Adam Henrique and Nick Ritchie while Ondrej Kase was slotted alongside Rickard Rakell and captain Ryan Getzlaf. Rakell and Kase combined for 54 goals last season but each was unable to convert on open-net chances against Toronto. "The chances we had you'd think we would've potted. Two, specifically, Rakell and Kase," Carlyle told the media. "Two guys who, historically, have been able to find the net with some consistency."
OVERTIME
1. Avalanche G Philipp Grubauer, who will start Sunday, is 1-2-0 with a 1.95 goals-against average versus Anaheim.
2. The Ducks have killed off 28 of its last 31 short-handed situations.
3. The Avalanche need one win to reach 1,000 (playoffs included) since the franchise relocated to Colorado.