The Avalanche take a nine-game point streak (8-0-1) into Saturday’s matinee against the Vegas Golden Knights at Ball Arena as they try to move into first place in the West Division.
The Avalanche (21-8-3, 45 points) are tied with the Golden Knights (22-8-1, 45 points), but Vegas still leads the division after a 5-1 loss Thursday because they have played one fewer game and have a better winning percentage (.726 to .703).
Here’s my NHL.com
RECAP of Thursday’s win against Vegas.
The Avalanche have gone 8-0-1 in the past nine games; the Golden Knights were on a 6-1-0 run before Thursday.
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The Avalanche wore “Boulder Strong” jerseys with the No. 10 in the pregame warmup Thursday to honor the 10 victims from Monday’s mass shooting at a Boulder supermarket. They will be signed and auctioned off with proceeds going to the Colorado Healing Fund. A moment of silence was held before the game.
"We were heartbroken when we found out the news,” captain
Gabriel Landeskog said. “It was just way too close to home. I know us wearing the jerseys in the grand scheme of things maybe doesn't change a whole lot or mean much, but we just wanted to show our support. The jerseys will be donated and the money will be used (for) the victims' families. Just a little bit of something that we can do. (It's) sickening and (we're) all heartbroken for the victims, their families, all of Boulder, Colorado."
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Philipp Grubauer, who will make his 26th start and 27th appearance Saturday, doesn’t look the worse for wear. If anything, he looks fresh as ever while enjoying a Vezina Trophy type season. He’s won eight games in a row, has set career highs for wins (20) and shutouts (five), leads the NHL in goals-against average (1.69), and is second in save percentage (.931).
He's also the first goalie in Avalanche/Quebec Nordiques history to reach 20 wins in fewer than 30 appearances.
“Nothing’s changed preparation wise, just going to look at one game at a time,” Grubauer said Friday of his heavy workload. “I think we have enough time between games to recover. I actually love the schedule because you can get into a rhythm. We don’t have three, four days between games and we don’t travel that much.”
Grubauer is in the final year of a three-year, $10 million contract and could become an unrestricted free agent after the season unless he and the Avalanche come to terms on a new deal before then.
“There’s not much been going on based on the schedule,” he said of his contract situation. “We’re so busy and my main focus is on playing against Vegas tomorrow and stopping the puck tomorrow. Everything else is going to take care of itself if it’s not in a week or in a couple months or after the season.
“I don’t think there’s any rush to do that right now. We’re focused on winning the game tomorrow and then the Stanley Cup.”
Jared Bednar moved past
Marc Crawford into sole possession of third place among Avalanche/Nordiques coaches on Thursday with his 166th win.
Hired on Aug. 25, 2016, Bednar has a 166-144-38 record, 144-88-34 since going 22-56-4 his first season in 2016-17 after
Patrick Roy unexpectedly resigned.
He trails
Michel Bergeron (265) and
Bob Hartley (193).
“I did not know that,” Bednar said Friday. “I mean, I think it’s just a product of a real good team. Coming in in a tough first year, (general manager)
Joe (Sakic) and his staff have been able to turn this thing around in a hurry with some of the players we’ve brought in. We managed to become a good team really quickly and I think we’ve been taking steps to improve every year.
“It’s a hard-working core group with great leadership, we’ve got star power and Joe just finds a way to keep adding pieces to help make us incrementally better to push us toward that ultimate goal. I’ve been fortunate enough and lucky enough to be the coach of this team and I enjoy every minute of it.”
Matt Calvert, who has missed 14 games with various injuries, didn’t play Thursday and is week-to-week with an undisclosed injury, Bednar said.
Jacob MacDonald was being evaluated after blocking a shot Thursday and is questionable for Saturday, Bednar said.
Probable Avalanche lineup:
FORWARDS
Gabriel Landeskog -- Nathan MacKinnon -- Mikko Rantanen
Brandon Saad -- Nazem Kadri -- Andre Burakovsky
Valeri Nichushkin – Tyson Jost -- Joonas Donskoi
J.T. Compher -- Pierre-Edouard Bellemare -- Logan O’Connor
DEFENSE
Devon Toews -- Cale Makar
Ryan Graves -- Samuel Girard
Dan Renouf -- Bowen Byram
GOALIES
Philipp Grubauer
Jonas Johansson
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