Avs Talk - A Colorado Avalanche Blog

The Avalanche end their five-game homestand as they welcome the Atlanta Thrashers, Bob Hartley et al., to the Pepsi Center. It's been 4 years since Atlanta was last at the Pepsi Center and that was one month into Hartley's tenure as the Thrashers new head coach. Atlanta is heading into a six-game roadswing hot on the heels of a six-game homestand that ended with a shootout loss to Buffalo on Tuesday. As I'm sure all here are aware, the Avalanche are coming off a huge 5-4 overtime win over the Panthers on Tuesday. From the sounds of how practice went the next day, spirits were pretty high after that win.

They'll need to make sure their spirits remain high and their defence comes out to play. Atlanta is a high-scoring team but the majority comes from their top 3 scorers: Hossa, Kovalchuk and Kozlov. The point production of players below them drops off by half so if those 3 can be shut down, the Avalanche have a good chance at coming away with a win tonight. Although Kari Lehtonen is starting to show he can be a #1 goalie, he doesn't have a great defense in front of him which has led to Atlanta being one of the bottom 10 teams in goals against.

Brad May is tentatively scheduled to return to the lineup tonight. To make room for him, Antti Laaksonen was put on waivers yesterday. As far as I've heard, no team has picked him up yet so he may be destined for the minors. It's unfortunate but at the moment I would take May over Laaksonen. Something is missing with Laaksonen this year as he seems to have lost a step in his game. Brad May is no quicker, but he will bring more grit and heart to the team than Laaksonen does. I'd look for May to take an early penalty though as he's likely going to be pretty fired up in his first game back. I'll say he gets called for roughing at the 5 minute mark. Any other bets?

This will be John-Michael Liles second game back from his broken foot. If Adrian Dater was not exaggerating, then Liles had a foot that was flowing with blood after the game was over on Tuesday. However Liles was all smiles as he explained that while the game is on, he doesn't feel a thing. I would say that if blood was actually flowing from his foot...it's probably not a good thing. Hopefully he wasn't rushed back too soon.

And in another repeat, it will be Jose Theodore's second start in a row. It's the first time he's started back-to-back since late December. Given the way Quenneville has played goaltenders to this point, I'd say that he feels confident with Theodore in net, otherwise he would have went back to Budaj. It's not unheard of for a backup goaltender to make 2 starts in a row (Aebischer in Montreal) so I don't think this is any sort of move saying that Theodore is set to resume #1 responsibilities. I'd say it's more a day-at-a-time approach based on his play in practice and games. If it means that Theodore regains enough form to be shopped, great. If it means he regains enough form to become a full-fledged #1, great. If not, then that will be the end of Theodore's chances this season I would say.

Injuries
Brisebois - back, LTI
May - shoulder, IR (likely to be activate

Vigier - groin, IR

Hot
Sakic has 4 in 2, Stastny has 3 in 2, Wolski has 6 in 6, Clark has 7 in 7, Hejduk has 4 in 4.

Kovalchuk has 11 in 9, Slater has 4 in 3, Sim and Mellanby have 3 in 3.

Cold
Holik has 0 in 7, Metropolit has 2 in 8, Ruchin has 1 in 4, Kapanen has 0 in 5.

Laperriere has 1 in 5, Klee has 0 in 17.

Goaltenders
Jose Theodore - 10-11-1, 3.16 GAA, .898 save pct
Kari Lehtonen - 24-15-8, 2.85 GAA, .909 save pct.

Standings
Colorado - 26-23-4, 4th in NW, 9th in West
Atlanta - 29-18-9, 1st in SE, 3rd in East