Avalanche at Canucks
THE STORY: The Vancouver Canucks will be without one of their hottest skaters for Tuesday's game against the visiting Colorado Avalanche. Forward Chris Higgins will be on the shelf after suffering a recurrence of staph infection that forced him to miss a handful of games with the Florida Panthers a season ago. The 28-year-old is riding a season-high four-game points streak highlighted by his one-goal, two-assist performance in Sunday's 5-1 rout of the Calgary Flames. Vancouver enters Tuesday having won six of its last seven games, its lone blemish a wild 6-5 loss to Nashville last week. Tuesday represents the finale of a four-game homestand for the Canucks, who embark on a five-game East Coast trek beginning Thursday in Montreal. The Avalanche have climbed back to the .500 mark on the strength of a three-game winning streak. Tuesday's kicks off a stretch of three games in four nights through Western Canada.
TV: 10 p.m. ET, Altitude, Rogers Sportsnet Pacific
ABOUT THE AVALANCHE (13-13-1): Colorado had to be expecting more out of talented young defenseman Erik Johnson when they acquired him from St. Louis last season. Johnson, who came to the Avalanche with Jay McClement for blue-liner Kevin Shattenkirk and forward Chris Stewart, has only nine assists and a minus-12 rating in 22 games this season. His hits and blocks are down from last season, and all but one of his points have come via the power play.
ABOUT THE CANUCKS (15-10-1): Vancouver was buoyed over the weekend by the return of forward Mason Raymond, who had an assist in his season debut. Raymond suffered fractured vertebrae when he was run into the boards in Game 6 of the Stanley Cup final against the eventual champion Boston Bruins. He admitted to being a little behind the pace for part of the game, but figured it wouldn't take long to catch up.
OVERTIME:
1. Vancouver is 8-0-2 in the last 10 meetings between the clubs, and took seven of a possible eight points in the season series in 2010-11.
2. The teams will be division rivals once the NHL finalizes its new realignment plan. That means the clubs will face each other five or six times per season as opposed to four.
3. Colorado will start Semyon Varlamov in goal Tuesday while the Canucks counter with Roberto Luongo.