Morning Skate Report: Taking Homestand a Game at a Time

Tonight's game between the Colorado Avalanche and Chicago Blackhawks will mark the first of four in a row for the Avs at Pepsi Center and the team will look to take advantage by focusing on the task at hand.
Colorado has played the least amount of home games in the NHL so far this season, hosting just 16 outings, but is in a stretch that has the club playing eight of 10 games in Denver.
"It is always good to be home, but we got to take it one game at a time," said rookie forward Sheldon Dries. "We can't get too far ahead of ourselves. It starts tonight against the Blackhawks."

The four-game home stay is the second of the year for the Avalanche. The last time the squad played four-consecutive matchups in the Mile High City was just last week (Dec. 15-21) and was capped by a 2-1 loss to the Blackhawks.
Colorado outshot Chicago 36-28 in the contest and finished with more than double the total shot attempts of the Hawks, holding a 74-36 advantage.
"Offensively we were firing on all cylinders," Avalanche head coach Jared Bednar said of the last meeting between the teams. "We had a lot of chances, we created a lot of chances in the offensive zone, had some good looks at the net steadily throughout the game. The only thing is in that game we missed the net on some of our better opportunities.
"We were doing some good things, so we looked at some of that stuff this morning, what we did offensively and how we want to try and better that performance. I still think the one thing that we can do is make sure we are taking the goalies' eyes away a little bit more often on some of our scoring chances. Our net presence is inconsistent on most occasions."
The Avs aim to continue to put pressure on the Blackhawks' net tonight in order to have success.

"We have to get more traffic and a little more pucks to the net," said Gabriel Bourque. "I thought we did a good job last game against them, but it was not enough. We need to bring more tonight.
"We play our best games when we play [a north game], so we need to keep going the same way. It's been a tough stretch lately, and we need to go back to a simple game and win some hockey games."
The Avalanche is 2-4-0 in its last six contests, with both wins coming at home. Overall on the season, Colorado is 8-5-3 at Pepsi Center.
"We are in a little bit of a slump here, but no better way to get off it than at home," said Dries. "Great opportunity tonight, we got to take full advantage."

SHUFFLING FORWARDS

Colorado is expected to use the same lines in the contest as it arranged during the team's practice on Friday.
Matt Nieto will be on the left side of Nathan MacKinnon and Mikko Rantanen, while Gabriel Landeskog will be with second-year forwards Alex Kerfoot and J.T. Compher.
Bednar also used these lines in the third period of Colorado's game at the Arizona Coyotes on Dec. 22, a frame in which the Avs scored three goals.
"You look at guys like Kerfoot and Compher getting a chance to play with a guy like Landeskog. He can provide something that is much needed on that line: a sturdiness, a heaviness to his game, some experience and communication on the bench and on the ice," said Bednar. "Hopefully it works. Just briefly in Arizona we liked what we saw from this lineup and these combinations, and hopefully we can catch that same spark out of the few lines here tonight that we saw in Arizona."
Semyon Varlamov will be in net for Colorado. The Russian goaltender is 13-6-2 with a 2.20 goals-against average, .936 save percentage and three shutouts in 22 appearances against Chicago.
View: Avalanche vs. Blackhawks Projected Lineup