The Colorado Avalanche capitalized on shaky goaltending to rout the Ottawa Senators on Thursday night.
They face another team with questions in net when they welcome the Columbus Blue Jackets to Denver on Saturday.
Colorado brings a 16-game home winning streak into Saturday’s matinee matchup and has yet to lose in regulation on its ice (18-0-2). The Avalanche lost two straight in regulation heading into this season-long seven-game homestand and snapped that with an 8-2 win over Ottawa.
“We for sure wanted to start this homestand off the right way, first and foremost,” said defenseman Josh Manson, who scored two goals and finished with four points in the win, both of which are career highs. “We didn’t want to lose any more than two in a row. That was the mentality going in. You don’t want to lose two in a row, but definitely not three. We put a lot of emphasis on this game.”
Colorado is missing three key players — winger Gabriel Landeskog and defenseman Devon Toews, both who will miss weeks with upper-body injuries, and goaltender Mackenzie Blackwood, who is on injured reserve with a lower-body injury.
The Avalanche still have the NHL’s leading scorer in Nathan MacKinnon, who has 78 points (36 goals, 42 assists), and the top scoring defenseman in the league in Cale Makar with 51 points (13 goals, 38 assists). Martin Necas has 55 points (20 goals, 35 assists) and Brock Nelson is fourth on the team with 37 points (21 goals, 16 assists).
Columbus dropped the first two games of its four-game road trip and has lost four of its last five (1-3-1), including 5-3 at the Vegas Golden Knights on Thursday night. The Blue Jackets have given up five goals in each of the last three games.
No. 1 goaltender Jet Greaves posted a 2.29 goals-against average in 10 December games, but his GAA is 3.52 in four games this month.
Columbus enters Saturday with the fewest points in the Eastern Conference (43), but center Boone Jenner said the team is still focused.
“I feel like we have our identity. We know how we need to play to win, how we need to play to get points in this league,” Jenner said after the loss to the Golden Knights. “This little stretch here, we haven’t been up to our standard of how we’re going to play. We all have to give a little more to that standard we hold each other to in here.”
The Blue Jackets are led in scoring by Zach Werenski’s 46 points (16 goals, 30 assists). He is second to Makar in points among defensemen, and his goals lead all blue-liners.
Kirill Marchenko has added 35 points (16 goals, 19 assists), Dmitri Voronkov is third on the team with 28 points (15 goals, 13 assists) and Adam Fantilli has 27 points (12 goals, 15 assists).
Saturday will be the return to Denver for forwards Charlie Coyle and Miles Wood, both of whom were with Colorado last season. Coyle went to Colorado at the 2025 trade deadline and Wood spent the last two seasons with the Avalanche.
–Field Level Media
