Avs Talk - A Colorado Avalanche Blog

The first place Colorado Avalanche head to Detroit to take on the 11th place Red Wings tonight. I got joy out of writing that sentence. First place. 11th place. Mmmm...tasty.

Tonight will be the penultimate game of the Avs seven-game road trip which has seen them capture seven of a possible 10 points so far. I think that's far beyond what anybody's expectation of this trip would be so the only thing the Avalanche can do now is color us even more surprised.

Lineup

Chris Stewart and TJ Hensick have been the scratches recently and I don't see a need to inject one of them in the lineup at this point.

John-Michael Liles is still out so Ryan Wilson will draw in again. Wilson looked solid in his debut against the Canadiens on a pairing with Brett Clark.

Kyle Cumiskey slotted up to take Liles spot on the pairing with Foote against Montreal and will likely do so again today as he had his best game of the season on Thursday.

Johan Franzen is out of the Wings lineup for a few months after undergoing knee surgery while Pavel Datsyuk is sitting out this game as well. As much as I enjoy watching Datsyuk play, I'm more than happy to see him in the press box tonight.

Our old pal Brad May will be in the lineup tonight for the Wings and already fans are predicting a David Koci-May square off. Dario is taking it up a notch and hoping for an Adam Foote-Todd Bertuzzi showdown. Hard to argue with that.

Goaltending

Craig Anderson gets his eight straight start and there is absolutely no way you can argue that call. Anderson has been lights out this season and has fans, coaches and players alike marveling at a world without goaltending worries.

Time for the first?

Ryan O'Reilly got his on Thursday. Will Matt Duchene get his tonight? Wouldn't it be poetic for the Avs great white hope to score his first goal against the Wings? We all know it's only a matter of time but could time run a bit quicker, maybe?

At least he's enjoying the travel in the meantime.

Game time

The puck drops at 7:08 ET. This is a can't miss so put away whatever else you had planned and settle down in front of the TV or computer.