The Colorado Avalanche played some of their best hockey of the season last week, and yet only came away with a 2-1 record after blowing a two goal lead late against the San Jose Sharks. The Avalanche return home for the next week and will play some fierce opposition. Monday night's opponent is none other than the Eastern Conference leaders, the Philadelphia Flyers.
The Flyers may lead the conference, but there are some serious issues developing in the City of Brotherly Love. Captain and future Hall of Fame defenseman Chris Pronger will miss the remainder of the season with a concussion. Leading scorer and blossoming superstar Claude Giroux has also suffered a concussion. The league's leading scorer is out indefinitely, and the Flyers will absolutely miss his scoring presence.
In goal, the Ilya Bryzgalov experiment is not quite working out as expected. Philadelphia traded away two of their top centers this offseason, clearing space for the 31 year old Russian goaltender. So far this season, Bryzgalov has a very average 2.92 GAA and .896 SV%. Then again, Philadelphia cannot complain about his 14-6-2 record in net.
For Colorado, Kevin Porter finally returns to the lineup after serving a four game suspension for his hit on Vancouver Canucks' forward David Booth. Jean-Sebastian Giguere will start his second straight game in net for the Avalanche after a quality performance against the Washington Capitals this past weekend.
The puck drops at 7:00 p.m. MDT.
For more coverage, visit our Avalanche blog Mile High Hockey and our Flyers blog Broad Street Hockey.