Colorado Looks to Capitalize on its Chances vs. Minnesota

The Colorado Avalanche will look to get back into the win column tonight as it takes on the Minnesota Wild at Ball Arena.
The Avs are coming off a 3-0 loss to the Vegas Golden Knights on Monday, a game where they held a 34-28 edge in shots on goal but couldn't capitalize on their opportunities.
"Just touched up on a couple things we can improve on and also focused on some positives," veteran Nazem Kadri said of what the team can take from Monday's outing. "I mean a bit of a slow start to the game, but for the most part I think we controlled most of it and just ran into a hot goalie. That's going to happen from time to time, but it's just important not to get frustrated and stay with it and hopefully that will lead to success."

Colorado is 5-0-0 following a loss this season, one of three teams that have yet to drop consecutive games in 2020-21 (also the Carolina Hurricanes and Florida Panthers).
Tonight's game was originally scheduled for Feb. 4, but it was postponed due to NHL COVID protocols. Minnesota has played four games since it returned to action on Feb. 16, going 3-1-0 in that span, and is coming off a 6-2 win at the San Jose Sharks on Monday.
The contest marks a rare occasion this season as the Avs and Wild will only meet once before facing different opponents, but the teams are very familiar with each other.
This is the fourth of eight scheduled matchups between Colorado and Minnesota in 2020-21 and the second of four at Ball Arena. The Avalanche is 2-0-1 against its division foe so far in the season series.

"They are a hard checking team. They got pretty active D-men, in the O-zone they like to do a lot of switches and stuff so we got to be responsible, communicate appropriately and then closing guys off quick will be huge in the D-zone to try and limit their time and space," said forward Logan O'Connor. "They've been pretty good since coming back from the break, I think they are 3-1. They are playing with confidence right now and I think we got to attack them early here is important."
The Avs are 5-2-0 as the home team this season, which includes the outdoor win versus Vegas at Lake Tahoe and a five-game win streak from Jan. 15-Feb. 20.

LINEUP NOTES

Brandon Saad will not be in the lineup tonight as he and his wife are preparing to welcome their second child into the world.
"They are due to have a baby, him and his wife," head coach Jared Bednar said of Saad after morning skate. "They went into the hospital last night, so we are hoping and praying that everything is going good there. She was due to the have the baby this week, and it just so happened to land today so he will not play for us tonight."

With Saad out, Logan O'Connor will enter the lineup and skate in his sixth game of the year. O'Connor has two goals through five outings this campaign and four tallies in 26 career NHL contests. He will skate on a line with Pierre-Edouard Bellemare and Tyson Jost.
Gabriel Landeskog, Nathan MacKinnon and Mikko Rantanen will begin the game as a trio, while Nazem Kadri will center the second line with wingers Matt Calvert and Joonas Donskoi. The other threesome will comprise of Andre Burakovsky, J.T. Compher and Valeri Nichushkin.
Colorado is set to use the same defensemen as it did in its previous two outings, and Philipp Grubauer will once again start in net.

View: Avalanche Projected Lineup vs. Minnesota

NOTEWORTHY

Colorado is 6-2-1 in its last nine contests overall.
Starting with the outdoor game this past Saturday, the Avalanche will play 43 games over the final 78 days of the regular season. The club will not go more than one day between games the rest of the way, which includes six back-to-backs.
The Avs are allowing 2.13 goals per game, second in the NHL behind only Vegas (2.06) and are yielding the second-fewest shots against at 26.7, trailing only Boston (25.1). Colorado's .920 team save percentage is also second to the Golden Knights (.923).
The Avalanche has scored the first goal of the game in 11 of its 15 contests (73.3 percent), the highest percentage of scoring first in the league. The squad is 8-2-1 when lighting the lamp first.
Colorado's defensemen have combined for 34 points (seven goals, 27 assists) or 28.1 percent of the Avalanche's total point production through 15 contests, only one team, the Vancouver Canucks, has gotten a higher percentage of its offense from the backend (30 percent). Cale Makar is tied for second among all defensemen in points per game (0.92) while Devon Toews is tied for sixth among all rear guards with four goals.

ONE TIMERS

Nazem Kadri on the music in the locker room:"I don't know if anyone has really assumed the role of DJ yet, I think we are still just trying to figure that part out. There is a couple, Josty has thrown on a couple mixes, Nate's thrown on some music, I've thrown on some, so I think it's a bit of a collective effort."

Logan O'Connor on Brandon Saad's wife having a baby: "I think anytime someone is having a kid that's a pretty monumental moment in their life, and once Saader is back we will definitely share that excitement with him. I'm sure him and his wife are thrilled to be going through that right now. Right now, we got to focus on the game but for Saader and his family that is really special, and we definitely share that excitement in the locker room as well with a bunch of guys having kids and also going through that process pretty soon as well."
Jared Bednar on possibly mixing up the lineup during busy schedule: "We'll just keep playing it by ear to be honest with you. We have guys available that have played real well for us here. I also want to try and balance the cohesiveness of our group, I guess is a good way to put it. We need to start building chemistry on some lines and throughout our lineup in order to get the production that we want, so I am trying to be patient with some guys that maybe are struggling a little bit and try to put them with some complimentary players. We are still playing around with the lineup. Just because it worked last year doesn't mean it's going to work this year, and we are getting some fluctuations in our game there, but all things are on the table. We've discussed maybe in the back-to-back in Phoenix where we might be able to get some guys in and get a little extra energy out of our group."