Avalanche Faces Blackhawks Before Holiday Break

The Colorado Avalanche plays the second half of a back-to-back on Friday night in Chicago, the team's last game before the NHL's three-day holiday break. The Avs are 2-3-0 in the first contest of their five back-to back sets and 2-2-0 in the second.
This will be the second of five meetings between the Central Division rivals this season and the second of three that will be played in the Windy City. Colorado is 45-28-8 all-time since moving to Denver and 21-17-3 on the road in the series. While the Avalanche has lost its last two games in Chicago, the club has won five of the last seven at the United Center.

Last Time Out

The Avs lost their fifth straight game, falling to the Toronto Maple Leafs 6-0 on Thursday night. The Avalanche outshot the Maple Leafs 38-31, tying the second-most shots they've recorded in a game this season, but could not slip one past Frederik Andersen, who pitched his first shutout of the year and the sixth of his career.
The Blackhawks fell to the Ottawa Senators 4-3 in their last outing on Tuesday night. Chicago trailed 4-2 entering the third period, but outshot the Senators 11-4 in the frame and scored to come within one. The Blackhawks were 1-for-3 on the power play, and goaltender Scott Darling finished with 26 saves.

Last Time They Met

Corey Crawford pitched a 38-save shutout, and Marian Hossa scored two goals to lead the Blackhawks to a 4-0 win over the Avalanche on Nov. 3 in Chicago. The Avs outshot the Hawks 38-21, including a 12-4 margin in the third period, but were not able to solve Crawford.

What to Watch

Chicago Lineup
The Blackhawks will be without the services of Artem Anisimov and Marian Hossa on Friday night. Anisimov was placed on injured reserve retroactive to Dec. 18 after sustaining an upper-body injury, and Hossa will be out with an upper-body injury as well. Tanner Kero was subsequently recalled from the AHL's Rockford IceHogs.
The Avs will face Crawford, who will return to the lineup after having an emergency appendectomy on Dec. 3, in net.
Finding Offense
After two straight shutout losses, the Avalanche looks to spark something offensively, particularly on the power play, where it's come up with just one goal in its last 23 man-advantage opportunities.
"I think the power play is just hurting us in general really," said captain Gabriel Landeskog after Thursday's game. "I mean, I think in Minnesota, we had a chance in the third period on the power play, I think we had two or three to get us back in the game and at least get us on the board and we didn't do that. You know we talk about having a shot mentality on the power play and to a certain extent, I think we did. We put up 38 shots but [the] power play comes up empty and doesn't score any goals, so that's not good enough. Power play is killing us right now."

Player to Watch

Colorado: Center Nathan MacKinnon
MacKinnon's 3.5 shots per game is tied for ninth in the league, and he's helped the Avs to the second-best faceoff win percentage in the NHL with 316 faceoff wins. His 52.7 success percentage ranks only behind Matt Duchene, who sits second in the league (among skaters with 200 or more draws taken) with a 62.6 percent win rate, amongst Avalanche skaters.
Chicago: Left wing Artemi Panarin
Panarin's 35 points lead all Chicago skaters and is tied for fifth in the league. He enters Friday's contest on a five-game point streak in which he's racked up four goals and seven assists and four consecutive multi-point performances. He tallied a goal and an assist in the first matchup against Colorado.

The Details

Friday's tilt between the Avalanche and the Blackhawks starts at 6:30 p.m. MT and can be watched live on Altitude TV. The game can also be heard on Altitude Sports Radio AM950 and online at ColoradoAvalanche.com.