Avalanche at Blue Jackets
The Columbus Blue Jackets put their club-record seven-game home winning streak on the line when the Colorado Avalanche invade Nationwide Arena on Monday. The contest is a homecoming of sorts for Colorado first-year coach Jared Bednar, who spent three seasons in the Columbus organization as an assistant with Springfield and coach of Lake Erie of the American Hockey League, while Avalanche assistant Nolan Pratt served in that capacity for five seasons in Springfield and Lake Erie.
"I would say that probably half their team that at one point Pratter and I have coached,'' Bednar told the Denver Post. "I want them to win the East. I just don't want them to play well against us.'' The club Bednar and Pratt helped develop is coming into its own as it extended the best start in franchise history (10-4-2) with a 3-2 victory over Washington on Sunday for its second win over the Capitals in six days. Columbus boasts the NHL's top power play at 31.8 percent after going 2-for-3 on Sunday, including Alexander Wennberg's tally with 53.6 seconds left in the third period that gave the Blue Jackets their four straight victory. The Avalanche have won three of their last five games after Saturday's 3-2 triumph in Minnesota and Nathan MacKinnon (team-best 12 points) is heating up with a goal in each of his last two contests.
TV: 7 p.m. ET, Altitude (Colorado), CSN Ohio (Columbus)
ABOUT THE AVALANCHE (8-9-0): Matt Duchene (club-high six goals, 11 points) hopes to return after missing four games with a concussion, telling the Denver Post after skating on Saturday morning that the symptoms "are really hard to describe.'' Colorado also is missing captain Gabriel Landeskog, who stayed behind in Denver with a lower-body injury he sustained against Los Angeles on Tuesday and isn't likely to play Monday in the final contest of the three-game road trip. Semyon Varlamov (4-8-0, 3.01 goals-against average, .901 save percentage) is expected back in net after Calvin Pickard defeated the Wild for the second time this season.
ABOUT THE BLUE JACKETS (10-4-2): Captain Nick Foligno scored his team-best seventh goal Sunday and also recorded an assist to increase his club-leading point total to 18. Dalton Prout (back spasms) missed his third straight game Sunday while fellow defenseman Seth Jones (hairline fracture in foot) skated Sunday and reportedly could return Monday for his first action since Nov. 5. Curtis McElhinney (0-0-1, 1.61, .943) is expected to be in goal for the second contest of the back-to-back after Sergei Bobrovsky (10-4-1, 2.19, .931) made 19 saves Sunday for his fourth consecutive victory.
OVERTIME
1. Colorado has the No. 24 penalty-killing unit in the NHL at 78.9 percent after allowing four power-play goals in 15 chances over its last four games.
2. The Blue Jackets have won four straight games when playing for the third time in four days - they defeated the New York Rangers 4-2 on Friday - while the Avalanche have won six consecutive Monday contests.
3. Avalanche D Erik Johnson, who shares the team lead in assists with MacKinnon (eight), is the only American on Colorado's roster while Columbus has seven.