Canucks must make Vancouver less comfortable for Avalanche
Colorado on a high after hot start to season
Last Updated: Sunday, November 1, 2009 | 10:10 AM PT
By Malcolm Kelly, CBC Sports
Craig Anderson and the Colorado Rockies shut out the Vancouver Canucks and Daniel Sedin the last time they played. They won't have to meet the injured Sedin on Sunday. (David Zalubowski/Associated Press) Perhaps when the Colorado Avalanche come into Vancouver, they take a glance at Grouse Mountain and think of home.
Or maybe it's all the guys walking around who look like John Denver.
Whatever the cause, the Left Coast has been a comfort zone for the Avs, who are 7-1-1 in their last nine at GM Place. And look at all the great news that greeted them on arrival at the airport on Sea Island.
First, Colorado was hotter than Hades and on an 8-0-2 run before San Jose took a 3-1 bite out of them on Friday night. No matter. Just a scratch.
Overall the Avs are 10-2-2, eight points up on the 7-7 Canucks in the NHL's Western Conference and scoring at a prodigious rate.
And they meet a Vancouver team on Sunday night at 10 p.m. ET that is missing its captain, goaltender Roberto Luongo, a man who was just coming into his own when he broke a rib.
Not to mention the Canucks are wracked with other injuries, including Daniel Sedin (broken foot), Pavol Demitra (shoulder surgery), Kyle Wellwood (broken toe), Ryan Johnson (concussion), Jannik Hansen (broken fingers) and Alexandre Bolduc (shoulder).
Colorado has been getting stellar goaltending from Craig Anderson, signed as a free agent this summer. He's merely started every Avs game and is carrying a 2.04 goals-against average.
Peter Budaj, who has been injured much of the year, is back to business and he could get the start against Vancouver to give Anderson a blow.
Over to the Canucks, who could use a little defence to help out goaltenders Andrew Raycroft (the former Avalanche) and Cory Schneider.
On Friday in a 7-2 loss to Anaheim, Raycroft was pulled before the third period just a day after an excellent outing in a 2-1 shootout victory over L.A.
Coach Alain Vigneault dressed eight defencemen against the Ducks, missing so many injured forwards. Didn't seem to help.
And with the scoring lines so mixed up, the players could use "Hello, my name is …" tags.
"The deck is stacked against us here a little bit," defender Willie Mitchell told the Vancouver Sun on Friday after the loss to the Ducks. "That's just reality.
"We tried to generate what we could with what we had."
Mitchell also pointed out that guys with three or four games of NHL experience aren't normally out against the other club's stars all night.
The first time Colorado and Vancouver met this season, the Avalanche came out with a 3-0 win.
It's going to take a massive effort by the Canucks' defence to prevent that from happening again.
With files from The Associated Press
