Colorado Avalanche visit Detroit Red Wings
The Colorado Avalanche are set to take on the Detroit Red Wings in Detroit on Saturday night. While this is not the same rivalry that it once was, there are still two good teams that are playing fairly well to start the season.
These two teams have already met once this season with the Colorado Avalanche winning in a shootout 5-4. Since their first meeting the Red Wings have gone on a tear winning 7 of their last 10 games and Colorado has continued to hover right around .500.
Detroit is currently 1 point behind St. Louis for the Central Division lead, and is starting to see their offense kick into gear. The Red Wings rank 4th overall with 3.2 goals per game. The Wings have been performing well offensively even without the help of their power play which is struggling at moment and only scoring at a 16.1% clip, good for 16th in the NHL.
The defense for the Red Wings on the other hand has been pretty solid and figures to get stronger with the recent return of Brian Rafalski. The Wings are 10th overall in the league yielding just 2.5 goals per game.
Colorado is off to a decent start to the season as well, especially considering the amount of injuries they have suffered already. Currently the Avalanche are 3 points behind division leader Vancouver and 1 point behind Minnesota for second place. The offense for the Avalanche has been a bit of a surprise so far as they rank 3rd in the league with 3.3 goals per game.
One aspect the Avalanche will need to shore up if they want to be taken seriously as Stanley Cup contenders is their defense. Right now the Avalanche are giving up 3.3 goals per game, which ranks 27th in the NHL. Also, Colorado’s penalty kill has been awful converting at a 29th best 71.9%. If the Avs can get their defense together in this game they can give the Wings a good game in Detroit.
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