The Colorado Avalanche get their quick chance at payback tonight, hosting the New Jersey Devils at Ball Arena one week after a 4-3 loss in New Jersey. This is Colorado’s only game in the work week before two more on Friday and Sunday, and it comes with Mackenzie Blackwood expected back in goal for the Avalanche.
Blackwood has been in net for eight of Colorado’s 12 games this season as the club tries to settle on him as its starter, and he enters this rematch after Scott Wedgewood handled the loss in Nashville. Nic Roy is ready to play, while Zach L’Heureux remains out, leaving Colorado with one more lineup decision to sort through before puck drop.
The timing matters because the Avalanche are trying to stop the drift of a short week that includes three consecutive games against opponents playing the second half of a back-to-back. Colorado is also coming off a third straight disappointing road loss, so a home game against the same team that beat it last week carries a little extra weight. The Devils arrive with none of that uncertainty. Jake Allen was in net for New Jersey in last week’s win over Colorado and should start again, and the Devils have won four straight since then.
That run has lifted New Jersey to second in the Metropolitan division, with Jack Hughes leading the club with 14 points and the team sitting atop the league in expected goals percentage at 62.75 percent. The Devils also added Connor Hellebuyck over the weekend, then watched him make his debut last night in a 5-1 win over the Dallas Stars, when he stopped 16 shots. The combination of recent form and added depth is what Colorado is walking into at home.
The one thing still hanging over Colorado is whether the changes it tested at practice will hold for the game, because the margin for error is thin and the schedule is not easing up. With Friday and Sunday still ahead, the Avalanche do not just need a better night than last week; they need a result that resets the week before it gets away from them.
