The Avalanche have plenty of work to do if they hope to make a run at the playoffs. They hit the halfway point in the season Thursday when they face Ottawa at the Pepsi Center with a 16-16-8 record, leaving them seven points behind Winnipeg, which currently holds the second wild card position in the West.
Here are the game notes.
Semyon Varlamov will make his sixth consecutive start in goal and is coming off that 54-save, 2-0 win Tuesday in Chicago. He has a 4-2-0 record with two shutouts since returning from his third groin injury of the season.
"He's a strong person and yesterday he had a day off," coach Patrick Roy said. "I asked him how he felt this morning and he said very good. We need our No. 1 goalie right now. As a goalie, when you get on a streak where you feel you're in the zone, you want to play. You don't want to hear your coach saying, 'Yeah, you had 54 shots, maybe I should give you a day off.' He wants the net, he wants to play. He missed a lot of games."
Former Avalanche goalie Craig Anderson will start for the Senators (16-15-8). He's gone 4-1-2 in his past seven starts while allowing a total of 12 goals.
Like the Avalanche, the Senators haven't been scoring a lot of goals and they're 0-for-25 on power plays in their past seven games.
The Avalanche have won three of their past four games and are 7-3-2 in their past 12.
"I think the last few weeks we've grown as a team," captain Gabriel Landeskog said. "I think we've gotten better as the season has gone along, but we certainly want to improve. We know we have to improve to get to the playoffs. We have an opportunity tonight to keep going on home ice, where we've played pretty solid hockey as of late and we want to keep that up."
Senators rookie Curtis Lazar, captain of Team Canada's gold medal-winning team in the World Junior Championships, won't be in the Senators lineup. He hasn't had a full practice since returning to the team and coach Dave Cameron wants to give him another day to rest.
Here's the Avalanche lineup:
FORWARDS Gabriel Landeskog - Matt Duchene - Borna Rendulic Alex Tanguay - Ryan O'Reilly - Jarome Iginla Max Talbot - John Mitchell - Nathan MacKinnon Cody McLeod - Marc-Andre Cliche - Daniel Briere
DEFENSE Jan Hejda - Erik Johnson Nate Guenin - Tyson Barrie Brad Stuart - Nick Holden
GOALIES Semyon Varlamov Reto Berra