Preview: Avalanche Journey the Vacation Street for One other Vegas Trip

“What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas,” actually doesn’t apply to the Colorado Avalanche, who’s present win streak extra carefully resembles one other well-known slogan: “It keeps going, and going, and going…”

Tonight, they appear to maintain their profitable methods going as they return to motion with their remaining common season go to to Sin City for a return match in opposition to the Vegas Golden Knights.

Prior to the League-mandated vacation break, the Avalanche continued their dominance over their Central Division opponents, defeating the Arizona Coyotes Utah Mammoth by a rating of 1-0. Sam Girard scored the one purpose of the competition after stripping Utah’s Clayton Keller of the puck close to the Avalanche bench and placing a highlight-worthy backhand shot up over the shoulder of goaltender Vitek Vaněček within the second interval. Scott Wedgewood stopped all 32 photographs he confronted, together with a razor-thin goal-line glove save from Keller that required an in depth assessment by the officers after the play to find out that the puck by no means(?) totally crossed the purpose line.

The victory over Utah was the Avs’ fourth straight victory over Central Division opponents this month, their sixth consecutive win, and their thirteenth consecutive victory on Ball Arena ice. They additionally reached 61 factors in League standings, which is essentially the most accrued by any NHL group earlier than the vacation break (for the reason that NHL carried out a break for Christmas in the course of the 1972-1973 season). They additionally tied the League file for the second fewest video games (36) to interrupt the 60 level barrier in a season, remaining the undisputed chief in factors all through the Central Division, Western Conference, and League standings.

What does one do with a lot profitable? Head to Vegas, child!

Tonight’s recreation serves because the second recreation within the three recreation sequence in opposition to Vegas. During their earlier journey to T-Mobile Arena on Halloween, Martin Nečas opened the scoring 0:41 seconds into the sport. Brock Nelson and Brent Burns additionally contributed offensively, whereas Cale Makar iced the sport with an empty web tally to defeat Vegas by a rating of 4-2. A victory tonight will make sure that the Avalanche will end the calendar 12 months with solely two regulation losses on the highway—their solely regulation losses of the season—and accruing factors in 18 of 20 highway video games performed to shut out 2025.

Nathan MacKinnon stays the League’s goal-scoring chief (30), Cale Makar continues to guide all NHL defenseman in factors (43), and Scott Wedgewood has the bottom goals-against common amongst goaltenders (2.01), whereas Mackenzie Blackwood ranks fourth (2.16). Both Blackwood and Wedgewood are also tied for second amongst goaltenders in save proportion (0.924%) behind Minnesota’s Jesper Wallstedt (0.933%).

The Avs have gained their earlier three video games in opposition to Vegas, limiting them to 2 objectives or fewer in these contests.

Hard to guess in opposition to these numbers.

Forwards:
Artturi Lehkonen – Nathan MacKinnon – Martin Nečas
Gabe Landeskog – Brock Nelson – Valeri Nichushkin
Victor Olofsson – Ross Colton – Gavin Brindley
Parker Kelly – Jack Drury – Joel Kiviranta

Defense:
Cale Makar – Devon Toews
Josh Manson – Brent Burns
Sam Girard – Sam Malinski

Between the Pipes:
Mackenzie Blackwood
Scott Wedgewood

Vegas kicked off the 2025 – 2026 common season with a formidable begin in its personal proper, matching Colorado’s spectacular starting: each golf equipment had close to similar information (Vegas had a 6-1-3 file, whereas Colorado had a 6-1-4 file) heading into their first head-to-head match in October. Since then, accidents to key personnel have plagued Vegas. Center Jack Eichel, who signed an eight 12 months, $108 million extension with Vegas on October 08, has not performed since a 3-2 victory at Columbus on December 13. Defenseman Shea Theodore, who additionally final performed on December 13, has additionally missed the final 4 video games because of an higher physique harm. Captain Mark Stone suffered a wrist harm in a 4-1 loss to Carolina on October 20 and missed 16 video games, however has since returned to the lineup. Starting goaltender Adin Hill suffered a decrease physique harm within the loss to Carolina, and is predicted to be out long-term.

The prospect of dropping of Hill long run prompted Vegas take motion. Vegas, a franchise that’s no stranger to controversial roster strikes—particularly regarding its goaltenders—signed goaltender Carter Hart to a two 12 months, $4 million contract on October 25, eight days after he signed knowledgeable tryout contract with Vegas on October 19. Hart, one among 5 gamers on Team Canada’s 2018 World Junior championship roster accused of sexual assault, had beforehand been declared ineligible to play within the NHL previous to being acquitted in June. Since becoming a member of Vegas, Hart has a 4-1-2 file with a 0.904 save proportion.

Mitch Marner, acquired in a sign-and-trade take care of the Toronto Maple Leafs in June, ranks second in factors (38) behind Eichel (41), whereas each share the group lead in assists (29). Pavel Dorofeyev and Tomáš Hertl at present lead Vegas in objectives (15). On the blue line, Noah Hanifin ranks second in factors (11) and time on ice (23:18), whereas Theodore leads all defenders in each factors (20) and time on ice (24:01).

Tonight’s contest is the second of a 4 recreation homestand for Vegas at T-Mobile Arena. Currently, Vegas tied with Anaheim and Edmonton in factors (44) for the lead within the Pacific Division; nonetheless, they do have two video games in hand over Anaheim, and three video games in hand over Edmonton. Vegas has misplaced three of its final 4 video games, and is in search of its first victory over Colorado since October 09, 2024, a 8-4 resolution.

Forwards:
Ivan Barbashev – Mitch Marner – Mark Stone
Pavel Dorofeyev – Tomáš Hertl – Alexander Holtz
Reilly Smith – Brett Howden – Braeden Bowman
Brandon Saad – Colton Sissons – Keegan Kolesar

Defense:
Brayden McNabb – Kayden Korczak
Noah Hanifin – Ben Hutton
Jérémy Lauzon – Zach Whitecloud

Between the Pipes:
Carter Hart
Akira Schmid