Fresh off their overtime victory over the Ottawa Senators on Friday night, Colorado welcomes another Canadian team to Pepsi Center as the Montreal Canadiens make their only visit of the season.
Colorado keeps finding ways to win despite serious injuries to their elite talent. Milan Hejduk will miss his fifth straight game with a nagging groin injury. The Avalanche will have the services of Paul Stastny back on the ice, as he seems to be fully recovered from a stiff neck suffered against the Chicago Blackhawks last week. Colorado has won a season high five straight games with their league leading offense. In fact, they have not scored less than three goals in their past seven games. Forward Matt Duchene keeps assaulting the NHL leaderboards with his team leading 34 points. He is now 10th in the NHL in points scored on the season.
Montreal has also been having a very successful season, leading the Northeast Division with 40 points. They have been riding the shoulders of goalie Carey Price, who is putting up spectacular numbers for Montreal. While the Canadiens rank as middle of the pack with their offense, their defense has been incredibly stout, only giving up 69 goals on the season, second in the NHL.
Craig Anderson and Carey Price are expected to play in goal.
Former Avalanche defenseman and current assistant coach Sylvain Lefebrve will be honored by the Avalanche Alumni association before the game.
Puck drops at 6:00pm MST.