The Colorado Avalanche and Winnipeg Jets wrap up their season series on Wednesday night in Denver, and both teams are hoping to rebound from disappointing losses on Monday.
Colorado had a flat performance in a 3-1 home loss to Minnesota and missed a chance to jump the Wild in the Central Division, while Winnipeg had what coach Scott Arniel said was an “embarrassing performance” at Utah.
The difference is the Jets have more room for error. They are comfortably atop the Central Division with the second-most points in the NHL while the Avalanche are trying to scramble out of wild-card purgatory.
That made the lackluster offensive effort against Minnesota more frustrating for coach Jared Bednar, who has lamented his team’s slow starts of late. His players acknowledge that.
“Up until the last 10 minutes, there wasn’t much urgency throughout,” Cale Makar said. “We’ve got to make sure we find that early and play the whole game like that.”
Colorado has gotten healthier lately and may get top-six forward Valeri Nichushkin back soon from a lower-body injury that has kept him out of the last 10 games.
When he has played, Nichushkin’s presence makes things easier on the top lines. He has 11 goals in 21 games and is a force in front of the net. He also makes teammates like Nathan MacKinnon and Mikko Rantanen more dangerous.
MacKinnon continues to lead the NHL in scoring with 74 points (18 goals, 56 assists), Rantanen is sixth with 63 points (25 goals, 38 assists) and Makar, with 52 points (15 goals, 37 assists), is the highest-scoring defenseman.
Even with that talent, the Avalanche have yet to solve Winnipeg’s Connor Hellebuyck, who leads all NHL goalies in wins (28), save percentage (.927), goals-against average (2.02) and shutouts (six). Two of those shutouts have come against Colorado, and he could be back in net after allowing four goals to Utah.
The Jets may be without captain Adam Lowry, who left Monday’s game after the first period. Lowry slid awkwardly into the boards in the first, returned to play a few shifts, but didn’t play after the intermission.
Arniel didn’t have an update on Lowry postgame and Winnipeg did not practice Tuesday.
Lowry is seventh on the team in scoring with 26 points (11 goals, 15 assists). Kyle Connor’s 60 points (26 goals, 34 assists) and Mark Scheifele 54 points (27 goals, 27 assists) set the pace for the Jets.
Winnipeg is just 4-4-2 in its last 10 games and has dropped its last two. The second loss — 5-2 at Utah — was bothersome to Arniel and the players because of the way they played.
“That is not Winnipeg Jets hockey,” Nikolaj Ehlers said. “It’s not the first time this year we’ve played this way and when you don’t play the right way in this league, doesn’t matter who you’re playing against, you’re not winning that game and you’re letting our goalies down.”
Winnipeg has won two of the first three games against the Avalanche, with the home team holding serve in each game.
–Field Level Media
