Avs Focus On Special Teams Against Panthers

The Colorado Avalanche's penalty-killing unit is riding a streak of 10 consecutive kills, matching its longest streak of the season, and it will look to continue that success tonight at home against the Florida Panthers.
The Avs are facing the Panthers for the second time in five days as Colorado defeated Florida 7-3 in Sunrise on Saturday. In the contest, Colorado took five penalties but didn't allow a power-play goal against.

"I think the penalty-killing group that we have is really committed to defending and really committed to outworking the other teams five-man unit," Gabriel Landeskog said. "I think as long as you have that commitment and that attitude going out there that you are going to outwork them, you are going to go out there and create some havoc. It's been a really successful thing for us."

At home, Colorado's penalty kill ranks third in the NHL after only allowing four man-advantage goals in 48 chances and the power play is fifth, having been successful 27.6 percent of the time.
"Like a lot of aspects of your game, you will go through streaks when you are hot and cold," said head coach Jared Bednar. "We have done that on both the special teams, and the 5-on-5 play for that matter. So finding that consistency I think is the key to winning."
While the Avs have been very effective while shorthanded in the last few games, the team has not scored with the extra skater since Dec. 5.
On Tuesday against the Washington Capitals, the team's last outing, Colorado had four power-play opportunities but could not take advantage of those situations.
"We all know we can be better, everybody in this dressing room can be better, special teams can be better--especially our power play," said rookie Tyson Jost. "I think our power play really struggled in Washington. That's a huge key for us. I think we can take advantage of that. I think tonight is an opportunity to bounce back on the power play and the special teams aspect."

To encourage and refocus the power-play unit, the coaches put an emphasis on the extra-skater opportunities during the team's pre-game meetings.
"We had a PP meeting in the morning to review some of the things that we had been doing earlier in the year that were working for us, and the pace and execution of what we played with," said Bednar. "We are getting the guys feeling good about getting back on track. We will have another short [meeting] tonight, normally we don't do that, so we are paying a little extra attention to it here this morning."
Coach Bednar will be utilizing a lineup of 11 forwards and seven defensemen for the fifth game in a row.
"I try to separate our lines so we can get [Nathan] MacKinnon some extra ice time," he said of using the non-traditional lineup. "We have liked the way that the sheets look with our minutes played at the end of the games when we have played 11.
"It makes it tougher for the opposing coach when you have MacKinnon popping out on the ice every once in a while -[Mikko} Rantanen, [Gabriel] Landeskog and guys like that. But we have also been using Compher and those guys in some of those situations as well."

INJURY AND ILLNESS UPDATES

Forwards Alex Kerfoot and Nail Yakupov will once again be out of the lineup for the Avalanche tonight.
Kerfoot missed the Avs' last contest after hurting his foot on Monday night against the Pittsburgh Penguins, accidentally blocking teammate Erik Johnson's shot.
"The swelling in his foot is starting to go down so he is feeling better," said Bednar. "He felt a little bit better yesterday and even better today, but he is still day-to-day. He is getting evaluated every morning, and we will see when he is able to get back on this ice."
Right wing Yakupov has missed the last few games as well while battling an illness but he is feeling better and could return to game action soon.
"Yak is better. Had a decision to make on Yak today, decided to keep him out of the lineup because he hasn't skated," Bednar said after the team's morning skate. "Really the only reason is he hasn't skated since the morning skate in Florida. He has been off for four or five days now, so we need to get him on the ice. He skated this morning, and he will get a good practice tomorrow and hopefully get him back in the lineup here the next night."

SIEMENS REASSIGNED TO SAN ANTONIO

On Wednesday, defenseman Duncan Siemens was reassigned to the San Antonio Rampage of the American Hockey League.
The Avalanche recalled the blueliner on Nov. 28, and he played his first NHL game of the season on Dec. 5 against the Buffalo Sabres.
"It gives him a chance to go play, we don't want him sitting around too much. We brought him up for a reason," coach Bednar said. "We were able to get Duncan up, he got in the one game, we really liked him. Management liked him, coaching staff liked him, there are just a couple guys that are just a little bit ahead of him right now.
"He hasn't played for a little bit, so we get him down there playing again and keep reevaluating moving forward."
He has recorded three points (one goal, two assists) in 20 games for the Rampage this campaign.