Big Northwest Division Matchup - Canucks at Avalanche
by Ian James
The Vancouver Canucks continue on their NHL record setting road trip on Tuesday night with a date in the mile high city of Denver against the Colorado Avalanche. Tonight is a huge matchup in terms of the rankings in the Northwest Division as Colorado is their closest rival in the standings going into tonight’s matchup.
Vancouver (40-23-2) wouldn’t give up the lead in the division with a loss as they have more wins than Colorado (37-22-6), but putting themselves four points up on the Avs will give them a much more comfortable cushion.
The Canucks have had the Avalanche’s number of late, winning the last three games by a combined score of 16-4 and have come out of the Olympic break on fire. They have won three of four games since the Olympics and are an impressive 7-5-0 on their swing thus far.
With the Canucks’ 4-2 win on Sunday versus the Nashville Predators, they became just the fifth team in the NHL to reach 40 wins this season, doing so in 65 games which is the fastest any team in franchise history as done so.
It wasn’t easy, as they had to come back from an early deficit as they have done so many times before this season. This time it was Mikael Samuelsson and Jannik Hansen scoring the key third period markers, with Henrik Sedin icing it with an empty-net goal.
It has been a total team effort for the Canucks of late and it has been the second and third line guys that have been carrying the scoring load of late. Early on in the season it was their first line guys doing most of the damage, but as they’ve slowed down the others have stepped up. That is great news heading into the stretch run, knowing you have scoring depth and team balance makes you a much more dangerous team on any given night.
As for the Colorado Avalanche, they have just continued to be one of the surprise teams of the NHL this year, and are fresh off a 7-3 pounding of the St. Louis Blues on Saturday. Chris Stewart was the offensive catalyst in that one, recording his first career hat trick, which capped off a big week for the second year forward that earned him the NHL's top star.
The Avalanche got a shot in the arm just at the right time as winger Milan Hejduk returned to the line-up after missing 17 games with knee and back problems. He made it a fashionable return, scoring two goals against the Blues, and looked like the Hejduk of old all night.
Here are a few betting trends for this bit Northwest Division mathup:
- Canucks are 4-1 in the last 5 meetings.
- Under is 5-2 in the last 7 meetings.
- Under is 9-4 in the last 13 meetings in Colorado.
This is a tough one to call, but the Canucks have been flirting with disaster the last few games and I think it’s going to catch up to them tonight. Play the Avalanche at -115.
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