Morning Skate Report: Avs Have Big-Game Experience

Playing in playoff-implication games in the final weeks of the season has been nothing new for the Colorado Avalanche. The team had several such contests just last week when it skated at the Minnesota Wild and Dallas Stars and had a home-and-home set against the Chicago Blackhawks.
The Avs went 3-0-1 in those outings to help put themselves in the second wild-card spot in the Western Conference in the final days of the regular season.
Colorado can continue to solidify its position for the Stanley Cup Playoffs this evening when it hosts the Arizona Coyotes at Pepsi Center in what is likely the biggest game of the season to date. The Avalanche (83 points) currently has a two-point edge over the Coyotes (81 points) in the standings.
"I'm excited for this game. I think it is a great opportunity for our team, and that is what I want our guys to feel," said Avs head coach Jared Bednar after morning skate. "This is a game where we can go play in front of our home fans and it's high-stakes hockey, and that's the type of games you want to play. That's the kind of games you want to coach in. It's playoff hockey, and there are still five games to go."

Both clubs have played the same amount of contests in the regular season. After tonight, Colorado has two home games and two road games remaining, while Arizona has three home outings and one road contest.
The Avalanche will be getting a reinforcement back in its lineup for this evening's mega-matchup, as Bednar confirmed that captain Gabriel Landeskog will return to game action after missing the last nine contests with an upper-body injury.

Landeskog, who will play on a line with Carl Soderberg and Colin Wilson, was supposed to miss four-to-six weeks, but the left wing worked hard in his recovery and will be back a week early. The Avalanche went 6-2-1 in his absence and is presently on a six-game point streak (5-0-1).
"It's tough because you want to be with the guys and be there with the team, especially this time of the year," Landeskog said. "It's one thing to miss November and December, that would suck as well, but when it's this time of the year and every game matters as much as it does right now, it's been tough watching. At the same time, the boys have been doing great. It's been fun to watch."
Colorado is looking to make the postseason in consecutive seasons for the first time since 2003-04 and 2005-06 (2004-05 season was cancelled), and Arizona is looking to reach the playoffs for the first time since 2012 when it made the Western Conference Final.
The Coyotes are coming off a 1-0 victory on Tuesday against the Blackhawks that ended a five-game winless streak (0-3-2).
"It's a big one, we know that," Landeskog said of tonight's matchup. "You look at the standings, there isn't a whole lot that separates us in the standings. We have a chance of sort of separating ourselves and keep climbing toward Dallas. I think that is what our goal has to be. At this time of the year, you got to try and win every single game."

The Avalanche players know there is a lot at stake with this evening's game, but the club has been here before. It's outings last week and playing a win-and-get-in season finale versus the St. Louis Blues last season should help the team in situations like this.
"Most of us have playoff experience, so this is going to be a playoff game," said Nathan MacKinnon. "We can't get too excited and get over our structure and details of our game, that's important. I think we have to be mature with this. Like last year, Game 82, we've been through it. It's good that we have some experience. Get going against Minny and Dallas, those were must-wins for us--if we don't win those games, we're not where we are right now, we're still chasing. We've played some big games and I expect a good effort from our group tonight."
For the Avs, playing meaningful games in the springtime is what they've worked so hard for in their offseason training and through the first 77 games of the 2018-19 campaign.
"We're all having fun playing hockey," said defenseman Nikita Zadorov. "When you have that much pressure, when you have that much to play for with a playoff spot right now, it's even more fun, double-fun. You go out there, you have fun and you're also competing for something. That's what makes this game so intense and so hard to make playoffs."

TIEBREAKERS

The Avalanche and Coyotes aren't only jockeying in the standings, but they're also battling to gain the tiebreaker advantage, if such a situation arises that both squads have the same amount of points at the end of April 6.
The NHL has several different levels in its tie-breaking procedure, with the first being regulation and overtime wins (ROW). The Avs currently have a 34-33 edge in that category
The next level is the greater amount of points earned in games between teams. If the clubs have played an unequal amount of home games, points earned in the first game played in the city that had the extra game won't be included. For Colorado and Arizona, that is the Avs' 5-1 victory on Nov. 23. The Coyotes won 6-4 in the most recent outing on Dec. 22, meaning the Avalanche needs to win in regulation tonight to even this tiebreaker.
The third and final decider is goal differential for the entire season, with a victory in a shootout counting as a goal for and a loss in the skills competition counting as a goal against. The Avalanche presently has a hefty advantage in this scenario with a 24-goal lead over the Coyotes. Colorado has a plus-12 differential while Arizona is at minus-12.

LINEUP NOTES

With Landeskog returning to the Avalanche lineup, a forward will be coming out, but who that is won't be known until closer to game time as Bednar did not say which two skaters will be scratched.
Defenseman Ryan Graves is expected to take one of those positions after being scratched on Tuesday against the Vegas Golden Knights.
Philipp Grubauer was the first goaltender off the ice from morning skate and is expected to make his seventh straight start, extending his career-long streak.

VIEW: Avalanche vs. Coyotes Projected Lineup