About the Avalanche - 11-15-11
A preview of the Avalanche.
When and where: 7:30 p.m. Consol Energy Center.
TV: Versus, TSN2.
Record: 8-8-1, 17 points. The Avalanche is in 12th place in the Western Conference and fourth place in the Northwest Division.
Leading Scorer: Matt Duchene, 13 points (six goals, 7 assists).
Last Game: 4-3 home loss to the Flames, Saturday. Milan Hejduk (right) had a goal and an assist for the Avalanche.
Last Game against the Penguins: 3-2 overtime home loss, Feb. 16. Jordan Staal had a goal and an assist for the Penguins.
Avalanche Player We Would Bet Money On Scoring: Hejduk. He has a 15 points in 15 career games against the Penguins.
Ex-Penguins on the Avalanche: None.
Ex-Avalanche on the Penguins: Tom Fitzgerald, assistant to the general manager; Tony Granato, assistant coach; Andre Savard, professional scout.
Useless Avalanche/Nordiques Trivia Vaguely Related to the Penguins: Former Penguins goaltender Ron Tugnutt holds the Avalanche/Nordiques franchise record for most consecutive games played by a goaltender with 26 during the 1990-91 season.
Best Avalanche Video We Could Find: Steve Sullivan, then of the Blackhawks, teaching an Avalanche fan about Karma many years ago:
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Probable goaltenders: Marc-Andre Fleury (9-2-1, 1.87 GAA, .932 SV%) for the Penguins and Semyon Varlamov (5-7-1, 3.08 GAA; .897 SV%) for the Avalanche.
Injuries: For the Penguins, left winger Steve Sullivan ("lower body") is questionable. Centers Sidney Crosby (concussion), Tyler Kennedy (concussion), defensemen Ben Lovejoy (left wrist), Zbynek Michalek (finger) and Brian Strait (elbow) are on injured reserve. For the Avalanche, centers Peter Mueller (head), Mark Olver (head) and right winger Brandon Yip (forearm) are on injured reserve.
Potential lines and defensive pairings: The Penguins' lines are difficult to predict given all the recent injures. Here's an educated guess:
Steve Sullivan - Evgeni Malkin - James Neal
Chris Kunitz - Jordan Staal - Pascal Dupuis
Matt Cooke - Richard Park - Arron Asham
Eric Tangradi - Joe Vitale - Craig Adams
Brooks Orpik - Kris Letang
Paul Martin - Deryk Engelland
Alexandre Picard - Matt Niskanen
-The Avalanche's primary lines and defensive against the Flames Saturday were
Joakim Lindstrom - Paul Stastny - Milan Hejduk
T.J. Galiardi - Matt Duchene - David Jones
Gabriel Landeskog - Ryan O’Reilly - Daniel Winnik
Cody McLeod - Kevin Porter - Chuck Kobasew
Erik Johnson - Ryan Wilson
Shane O'Brien - Kyle Quincey
Ryan O'Byrne - Jan Hejda
Notes:
-The Penguins have recalled forward Dustin Jeffrey from Wilkes-Barre/Scranton of the AHL.
-Martin isn't happy with his minus-11 either.
-Crosby's status is still up in the air.
-Park has played in 699 career games and has 97 career goals.
-The Avalanche named forward Hejduk the 10th captain in franchise history.
-Yip is close to returning to the lineup.
-The Penguins will wearing their blue "Frankenstein" mish-mash jerseys tonight.
(Photo: John Grieshop/Getty Images)