NHL Picks: Red Wings will top Avalanche in Stadium Series – CBSSports.com
Welcome to the NHL Daily Picks where hockey writers Adam Gretz and Chris Peters make their selections for all of the day’s games.
Detroit Red Wings vs. Colorado Avalanche, 8 p.m. ET
One of the NHL’s best and most intense rivalries in the 1990s and early 2000s belonged to the Detroit Red Wings and Colorado Avalanche. It was a brutal, hate-filled matchup that ended up with some of the NHL’s fiercest on-ice feuds and brawls as the two teams met in the playoffs and competed for the Stanley Cup pretty much every year (together, they won five of the seven Stanley Cups between 1996 and 2002).
Just look at what this rivalry used to be.
Now that they are no longer in the same conference and don’t meet anywhere near as often, the rivalry has obviously cooled off quite a bit.
But it is an important one to fans, and the matchup gets a new twist on Saturday night when the two teams go outside for the NHL’s final outdoor game of the 2015-16 season when they meet at Coors Field (home of the MLB Colorado Rockies) in the continuation of the NHL’s Stadium Series.
It is a pretty big game for both teams as they try to solidify their playoff positions in their respective conferences.
In the East, the Red Wings are holding on to the first Wild Card spot and are looking to extend their streak of playoff appearances to 25 years. They have a four-point lead over New Jersey entering Saturday, the first non-playoff team in the East, and still have two games in hand. The Red Wings have slumped a bit in recent weeks with only two wins in their past seven games, a stretch that has seen them score more than two goals just twice (with one of those coming in a loss).
Colorado, meanwhile, has climbed back into a Wild Card spot of its own and has built up a four-point cushion over the Minnesota Wild. This Avalanche team is pretty much a carbon copy of every other team under Patrick Roy: They can score a little bit, but they are one of the worst defensive teams in the league and rely heavily on goaltending to bail them out on most nights. Entering play on Saturday the Avalanche find themselves in the bottom-10 in the league in goals against, penalty kill and shots against (only the Ottawa Senators allow more shots on goal per game than the Avalanche do). They are the only team currently in a playoff spot to be in the bottom-10 in all three categories (Ottawa and the Edmonton Oilers are the only other teams that are in the bottom-10 in all three).
It is because of that poor defensive play that it’s difficult to see them going far in the playoffs or matching up well with a team like Chicago, Los Angeles or Anaheim in a best-of-seven series. It is also perhaps the perfect opponent for a Red Wings team that is in need of a big game offensively. Pick: Detroit Red Wings 5, Colorado Avalanche 3
The rest of Saturday’s scores
Arizona Coyotes 3, Philadelphia Flyers 2
St. Louis Blues 4, Nashville Predators 3
Pittsburgh Penguins 5, Winnipeg Jets 2
Florida Panthers 3, Columbus Blue Jackets 1
New York Rangers 3, Dallas Stars 2
Montreal Canadiens 4, Toronto Maple Leafs 1
Ottawa Senators 2, Calgary Flames 1
Los Angeles Kings 4, Buffalo Sabres 2
The Detroit Red Wings look for a big win on Saturday in the NHL’s next outdoor game. (USATSI)
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