Coyotes at Avalanche
The Colorado Avalanche looked like a team on the rise while winning three of their first four games this season, but it has been a struggle at both ends of the rink in the last seven. The Avalanche hope to end their severe offensive woes and get back on track Tuesday night when they host the Arizona Coyotes to open a four-game homestand.
Colorado scored 14 goals in the first four games and eight in its last seven with No. 1 goalie Semyon Varlamov dropping five straight starts. “We’re letting him down, if anything,” Avalanche forward Matt Duchene told reporters of Varlamov. “It’s just too many Grade A chances. ... To me, he’s not the problem at all. We can’t score. We get one goal, we have no chance of winning.” Arizona had begun to turn things around a bit with three wins in four games before managing just 22 shots in a 5-1 loss at Anaheim on Friday. “I hope they’re frustrated,” Coyotes coach Dave Tippett told reporters after a spirited practice Sunday. “You look at our record, we’re not near what we’re capable of.”
TV: 9 p.m. ET, FSN Arizona Plus, Altitude 2 (Colorado)
ABOUT THE COYOTES (4-7-0): Arizona has not received the expected production from several key forwards while defenseman Oliver Ekman-Larsson leads the team with five goals. Max Domi, who had 18 tallies in his rookie campaign in 2015-16, has yet to record one and Anthony Duclair hit the back of the net just once after scoring 20 goals last season. Forwards Martin Hanzal (lower-body) and Tobias Rieder (lower-body), along with defenseman Michael Stone (upper-body), are not expected to play while forward Tyler Gaudet and defenseman Anthony DeAngelo were recalled.
ABOUT THE AVALANCHE (5-6-0): One of the problems for the offense has been the power play, which converted on four of nine opportunities in the first two games of the season and is 3-for-32 since. Duchene had the lone tally on Sunday and leads the team with six goals and 10 points while captain Gabriel Landeskog and fellow forward Nathan MacKinnon have produced one goal between them in the last nine games. The defense contributed just two goals and center Joe Colborne scored a hat trick in the season opener, but owns just one point (an assist) in the past 10 games.
OVERTIME
1. Arizona C Brad Richardson, who started his career with the Avalanche and had a career-high 14 goals in 2006-07, leads the Coyotes with eight points.
2. Colorado RW Jarome Iginla, who has two goals in 11 games, is three penalty minutes shy of 1,000 for his career.
3. The Coyotes are 0-for-13 with the man advantage over the last five games and have given up five power-play goals in the same span.