Morning Skate Report: Avs Aim For Payback in Calgary

CALGARY, Alberta--The Colorado Avalanche is looking for a little payback against the Calgary Flames.
In the clubs' first meeting of the season on Oct. 13 in Denver, the Avs jumped out to an early 2-0 lead before the Flames battled back and won 3-2 in overtime. Colorado is still a bit sour from the outcome of that game and is looking to flip the script tonight at Scotiabank Saddledome.

"We had a lead on them in our own building last time, and they ended up beating us," said Avalanche forward Matt Calvert. "We owe these guys and that is all we're focused on right now."
The Flames' comeback victory that night was a result of what they did offensively, as they turned up the shot count on goaltender Semyon Varlamov, who made 38 saves and will once again get the start this evening. However, the Avs made their fair share of mistakes and didn't continue attacking to the net after getting a multi-goal lead.
"I think early on in that game when we played them, we did a nice job of getting in and out of our zone. We were on our toes, on our attack and forecheck," said head coach Jared Bednar of the previous outing versus Calgary. "Second half of the game, we sat back, had some troubles getting in and out of our zone and they kept the pressure on us on our side of the ice."

In nearly every hockey game, there are going to be ebbs and flows of momentum, but trying to be as consistent as possible for the entire 60 minutes is what the Avalanche is striving for.
The club appears to be making progress in doing just that as it begins November tied for second place in the Western Conference.
Colorado has a 7-3-2 record on the season but has lost two of its past three games. However, each of those defeats came by a single goal, and the Avalanche played a solid enough contest in both outings to have a chance on earning a victory. The squad lost 1-0 on Oct. 24 to the Tampa Bay Lightning and 3-2 at the Minnesota Wild on Saturday.
"You have to check all boxes in order to win. We felt like we played pretty good against Tampa, played pretty good against Minny, and we didn't get any result there. The consistency of it is starting to come and hopefully we get the results."
"You can always get better after a loss, you reevaluate, you see what you did wrong," said Calvert of the last outing. "It was our third game in four nights, and there is definitely no excuse but you got to find a way in those tight games. I think the PK could have come up a little bigger at the end. That's on us."

The game against Calgary is the first half of a back-to-back set that wraps up with the Avalanche playing in Vancouver on Friday. Colorado is in the lightest part of its schedule this season, playing only two games in a 10-day span.
The Avs have had four days between contests, allowing the players to recover from one of the busiest Octobers in franchise history and get reenergized for the next stretch of games.
"I think the rest was big. We had three or four days off (from games)," Calvert said. "We had a chance to do some team bonding and then come out here [for this] Western Canada trip and hopefully get four (total) points."

MIKKO MR. OCTOBER

Mikko Rantanen was named the NHL's First Star for the month of October earlier today.
The forward leads the league in scoring with 21 points after tallying five goals and 16 assists in 12 games. He is the first Colorado player to lead the NHL in scoring through the end of October since Joe Sakic accomplished the feat in 1996-97.
Rantanen's 16 helpers were the most by an Avalanche player in a single month since 2002-03 when Peter Forsberg did it in three such months.
This is Rantanen's first-ever NHL Three Stars of the month honor. On Monday, he was named the Third Star for the week of Oct. 22-28 after recording three goals and four assists in four contests.

LANDESKOG LEADING

Rantanen wasn't the only Avs player that had a memorable October.
Gabriel Landeskog led the Avs with 10 goals, setting a new Avalanche record for the month (since 1995-96). He was the first player in franchise history to reach double digits in markers during the month of October since Owen Nolan had 13 with the Quebec Nordiques in 1991.
The last Avs player to tally 10 or more times in any month was Matt Duchene (11) in November 2015.
The Colorado captain also led the NHL with four game-winning goals in October, matching the Avalanche record for game-winners in any month.
Landeskog and Rantanen both finished the 10th month of the year with a plus-14 rating, a new Avs record for October. It was the highest plus/minus rating by a Colorado player in any month since Rob Blake was plus-14 in March 2006.