"He realizes that we have no other option," Panthers coach Bob Boughner said. "It's Louie and him. Obviously, [Harri] Sateri is a quality goaltender, but he doesn't have a lot of experience. He knows he needs to be good and step it up, and help this team get where we need to be. He's certainly done that in the last couple games."
Reimer stopped 59 of 63 shots in back-to-back games to split a pair of overtime decisions against Detroit and Chicago on Monday and Tuesday respectively. Over his past seven starts, the 29-year-old netminder has been handed just one loss in regulation (3-1-3), a lopsided 7-2 defeat at the hands of the Avalanche at BB&T Center on Saturday.
"It's obviously fresh in our mind," Boughner said. "We didn't really like our game the last time we played these guys. We're going to try and follow-up what we did last night in Chicago and [on Monday] in Detroit; keep worrying about our game. Their team has some confidence right now. That one big line, if you're not ready, they can do some damage. We've got to make sure that we're good against those guys."
Reimer traditionally relishes playing in Denver, where he owns a 3-0-0 record, with a 2.00 goals-against average and a .938 save percentage in three career starts. In Saturday's loss to Colorado, he allowed five goals on 28 shots, including a highlight-reel goal from Avalanche center Nathan MacKinnon.
In that game, however, the Panthers (12-14-5) were without their own superstar center, Aleksander Barkov, who sat out the game with an upper-body injury. After the loss, Boughner pointed to Barkov's noticeable absence as one of the main reasons for his team's struggles, saying that missing players of that caliber will "eventually catch up with you."
Colorado's top line of MacKinnon, captain Gabriel Landeskog and Mikko Rantanen has scored 30 of the team's 93 goals this season. MacKinnon and Rantanen each scored against the Panthers on Saturday, while Landeskog registered an assist.
"Every team has those players that can do something from nothing," said Barkov, who has 29 points (10-19-29) in 30 games. "You've got to pay attention, play smart, don't leave pucks in the neutral zone and don't feed their transition. I know they have a couple good players who can score. We've just got to play smart."
The Avalanche (13-13-2) return home after splitting a four-game road trip against Eastern Conference opponents. Like the Panthers, this will be the third game in four nights for Colorado, which is coming off a 5-2 loss in Washington, D.C. on Tuesday.
"I find that if you play a game against a team in back to backs or in close proximity, it's tough to win them both," Avalanche coach Jared Bednar said about tonight's rematch with the Panthers. "I like a lot of the things we did in Florida."
