Blackhawks at Avalanche
The Colorado Avalanche were the feel-good story during a sizzling 13-game start to the season, but they are dealing with turbulence in the Mile High City entering Tuesday's matchup with the visiting Chicago Blackhawks. The Avalanche have dropped three straight, including a stunning 4-1 home loss to lowly Florida on Saturday. That setback was compounded by an oblique injury to leading scorer Matt Duchene, who is expected to be sidelined for a week.
Chicago rebounded from a 7-2 thrashing in Nashville on Saturday night with a dominant performance in a 5-1 drubbing of visiting San Jose on Sunday behind two goals from Patrick Sharp. It marked the last home game this month for the Blackhawks, who will kick off a seven-game, 12-day road trip. “Hockey is a funny game,” Sharp said. “Basically, if you win your one-on-one battles more than you lose them, good things are going to happen.”
TV: 9 p.m. ET, CSN (Chicago), ALT (Denver)
ABOUT THE AVALANCHE (14-5-0): A victory over Montreal on Nov. 2 pushed Colorado's record to 12-1-0 and gave it a league-high 24 points, but the recent mini-swoon has dropped the Avalanche to eighth in the ultra-competitive Western Conference. Losing Duchene, who had 12 goals and eight assists in 19 games, puts an added burden on an offense that has been without forward Alex Tanguay since Nov. 2. "You don't replace guys like this," said Colorado coach Patrick Roy, who will slide No. 1 overall pick Nathan MacKinnon into Duchene's slot on the No. 1 line.
ABOUT THE BLACKHAWKS (14-3-4): Kris Versteeg has already made an impact since his acquisition from Florida, scoring three points in his first two games and notching a goal and an assist in the win over the Sharks. Versteeg, who spent his first three seasons with the Blackhawks and aided them in winning a Stanley Cup in 2010, was welcomed back with a video tribute that helped erase the stench of Saturday's ugly loss. "It was emotional, obviously, coming back," Versteeg said. "(Saturday) wasn't definitely the way I saw coming back in my head, but tonight was very exciting."
OVERTIME
1. Blackhawks LW Patrick Kane, who will turn 25 Tuesday, is riding a seven-game point streak.
2. Colorado LW Ryan O'Reilly has five goals and two assists in his last seven games.
3. Chicago signed 2013 first-round pick Ryan Hartman to a three-year contract on Monday.