The Colorado Avalanche tangled with the hottest team in the NHL on Thursday night and now they face another squad on a big roll to begin the season.
After losing at Winnipeg 1-0 on Thursday night, Colorado hosts the surging Carolina Hurricanes on Saturday night. Carolina has won an NHL-best eight in a row, including two in overtime, and kicks off a three-game road trip in Denver.
The Hurricanes have averaged 4.75 goals during their winning streak and have scored at least four goals in each of the past seven games.
“Confidence is a big thing. When you see the puck go in, it helps,” said Jordan Martinook, who scored the first goal in the Hurricanes’ 5-1 win over Pittsburgh on Thursday. “I feel like the last couple games, (our line) has been around it a lot more and we’ve had a lot more chances.”
Carolina’s offense has been humming despite having only one player, Martin Necas, in the top 30 in points in the NHL and four players with 10 or more overall. Necas is second on the team in goals with seven while Jack Roslovic, who scored twice against Pittsburgh, leads with nine.
The Hurricanes are also getting great goaltending from Pyotr Kochetkov and Frederik Andersen, who combined have a 2.33 goals-against average. Kochetkov is 7-1 with a 2.51 average after stopping 35 shots against the Penguins.
“Obviously, he’s proven. He’s playing incredibly well, and nights like tonight, when we’re not all there, he’s doing his thing,” Martinook said after the win over Pittsburgh.
Colorado got good goaltending from Alexandar Georgiev, who had 27 saves against Winnipeg, but was shut out for the first time this season. Georgiev has struggled at the start of this season and had given way to Justus Annunen but if he can duplicate his performance Thursday, he can likely take back the starting job.
Goaltending hasn’t been the only sticking point in a slow start for the Avalanche. Injuries have depleted the top two lines with four of the team’s expected top six forwards on the shelf. Artturi Lehkonen made his season debut with a goal in a win against Seattle on Tuesday and Valeri Nichushkin is eligible to come off his suspension in a week. Jonathan Drouin (upper body) has begun skating as well.
The Avalanche had hoped captain Gabriel Landeskog would be ready to play for the first time since Game 6 of the 2022 Stanley Cup Finals, but he had a setback in his rehab and his future is uncertain.
Landeskog has had multiple surgeries in the past two seasons, including a cartilage transplant in his knee, and his timeline to return is murky.
“Setback could be fair, they just changed his course of attack for a little bit because of the way he was feeling,” Colorado coach Jared Bednar told Altitude Radio earlier this week. “I don’t think there was any one thing that happened or something where he just, like major changes to it. But he’s been on the ice and off the ice, there’s no timeline.”
