People are often motivated to make a resolution when the New Year begins.
The Colorado Avalanche seem to have made their resolution a few months early this season.
As they kick off their first road trip of the calendar year, they find themselves rematching against the Carolina Hurricanes, one of a small number of teams who have accomplished a rare feat against the Avalanche this season: victory.
Colorado Avalanche (30-2-7)
The Opponent: Carolina Hurricanes (24-13-3)
Time: 5:00 P.M. MST/7:00 P.M. EST
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Colorado Avalanche
The Avalanche were last in action on New Year’s Eve at Ball Arena, playing host to the St. Louis Blues to wrap up a two game homestand. The game took place in the wake of Hockey Canada’s unveiling on Wednesday of its Olympic roster for games in Italy. While it was assumed that Nathan MacKinnon, Cale Makar, and Devon Toews would be selected to the Canadian roster, more than a few eyebrows around the hockey world—specifically in Avalanche Territory—were raised when when Blues goaltender Jordan Binnington was chosen to represent Canada’s goaltending platoon over both Mackenzie Blackwood and Scott Wedgewood.
Rather than verbally acknowledge what could be viewed as a snub of its goaltending tandem, the Avs let their on-ice play speak for them, and it spoke
very loudly: within the span of 4:39, Valeri Nichushkin and Nathan MacKinnon
and Cale Makar blitzed Binnington with a pair of goals each, staking the Avs to a 4-0 lead on their first
nine shots of the game. Brock Nelson (who was named to the United States Olympic roster on Friday) would score on the power play during the second period, and Nichushkin would add another in the third period for his third career hat trick—the first in franchise history to be scored on New Year’s Eve—en route to a 6-1 shellacking of St. Louis. The win over St. Louis served as the fifth straight victory over Central Division opponents, extended the Avs’ current winning streak to nine consecutive games, and was the fifteenth straight win in a row at home. Though he was rarely tested, Blackwood stopped 12 of 13 shots for his thirteenth win of the season.
Oh, and Nathan MacKinnon’s 400th career goal stood as the game-winning tally.
Just as they were at the end of 2025, the Avalanche remain the uncontested and undisputed leader in the Central Division, Western Conference, and overall League standings as they seek their first victory of 2026. Nathan MacKinnon has a share of the overall points lead with Edmonton’s Connor McDavid (70), but still remains the League leader in goals (34). Cale Makar continues to lead all NHL defensemen in points (45), while Wedgewood shared the lead in goaltending wins (17) with three other netminders.
Both clubs previously met in Denver back on October 23. That game featured plenty excitement and intrigue, punctuated by both clubs turning back the clock in the fashion department: Colorado unveiled their Quebec Nordiques heritage jerseys for the first time, and Carolina, understanding the assignment, wore their Hartford Whalers uniforms for the occasion. A four-goal first period by Carolina would eventually be matched by a three goal Avalanche rally to force overtime. Neither team would score in the extra session, but Seth Jarvis scored the only goal in the shootout to give Carolina the 5-4 decision. Carolina’s Fredrik Andersen stopped 44 of 48 shots in the contest, while Trent Miner turned aside all 20 shots he faced in relief of Wedgewood, who was pulled after surrendering four goals on the first eleven shots of the game.
Tonight’s rematch against Carolina marks the first of back-to-back weekend of the calendar year for the Avalanche. To this point in the season, the Avs have fared pretty well in back-to-back situations, going 8-1-3 thus far. As they did in their last meeting, both clubs will be sporting their throwback threads. Unfortunately, the Avs will be without the services of Blackwood, who was placed on injured reserve on Friday. Trent Miner was recalled from Loveland and will back up Wedgewood tonight. Taylor Makar was also recalled on Friday, and may be inserted into the lineup in place of Joel Kiviranta, who did accompany the team on the road trip. Gavin Brindley is considered day-to-day as well, but will also be on the road trip.
Tonight also marks the return of both Martin Nečas and Jack Drury to Raleigh for the first time as visitors since being acquired by Colorado in the blockbuster trade that (briefly) sent Mikko Rantanen to Carolina last January.
Excitement and intrigue, indeed.
Projected Lineup
Forwards:
Artturi Lehkonen – Nathan MacKinnon – Martin Nečas
Gabe Landeskog – Brock Nelson – Valeri Nichushkin
Victor Olofsson – Jack Drury – Ross Colton
Zakhar Bardakov – Parker Kelly – Taylor Makar
Defense:
Cale Makar – Devon Toews
Josh Manson – Brent Burns
Sam Girard – Sam Malinski
Between the Pipes:
Scott Wedgewood
Trent Miner
Carolina Hurricanes
Carolina enters tonight’s contest in first place in the Metropolitan Division, and is tied for second place in points with Tampa (51) for the overall lead in the Eastern Conference, one point behind the Detroit Red Wings.
They are also one of just eight teams who have done what the rest of the League has failed to do: defeat the Colorado Avalanche. Nine players all had points in that victory back in October. Since then, Carolina has endured multiple injuries to key personnel. Seth Jarvis, who scored a goal and an assist in that game, along with the shootout winning goal, was placed on injured reserve on December 22. That same day, local-ish product defenseman Jaccob Slavin was placed on injured reserve with an upper body injury and is considered week-to-week. Slavin has only suited up for five games all season. Goaltender Pyotr Kochektov will miss the rest of the season due to a lower body injury.
Tonight’s game wraps up a two game homestand for Carolina, and also serves as a first of a back-to-back weekend. They have lost five of their last seven games, their most recent being a 7-5 defeat at the hands of the Montreal Canadiens at Lenovo Center on Thursday evening. Hurricanes head coach Rod Brind’Amour was pretty blunt when addressing the team’s performance after the loss. “These [injured] guys aren’t coming back, we’re not going to get other players to help, we gotta figure it out with this group, and that’s the reality.”
Captain Jordan Staal added, “If we play like [we did tonight], we’re going to lose 20-1. It’s an exceptional team coming in, obviously the best in the League, and they’re going to make us look like an AHL team if we don’t show up and play and defend, and really just play our game, so [it’s a] big challenge.”
Despite the loss of Jarvis, Carolina is still getting plenty of point production. Sebastian Aho leads the team in overall points (40) and ranks second behind Jarvis in goals (16). Andrei Svechnikov is second in points behind Aho (30). Former Winnipeg Jet Nikolaj Ehlers, who signed a six-year, $51 million dollar contract with Carolina in the offseason, is tied for third in team points (29). On defense, Shayne Gostisbehere leads the Carolina blue line in points (29) and is tied with former one-time Avalanche defenseman Sean Walker for second place in goals among defensemen (4). Gostisbehere has missed the last three games with a lower body injury, however.
While goaltender Brandon Bussi saw action on Thursday, it’s possible that Fredrik Andersen starts against Colorado to keep the young netminder fresh for action when Carolina visits New Jersey on Sunday.
Projected Lineup
Forwards:
Nikolaj Ehlers – Sebastian Aho – Andrei Svechnikov
Eric Robinson – Logan Stankoven – Jackson Blake
William Carrier – Jordan Staal – Jordan Martinook
Taylor Hall – Mark Jankowski – Jesperi Kotkaniemi
Defense:
Alexander Nikishin – Sean Walker
K’Andrew Miller – Jalen Chatfield
Mike Reilly – Joel Nyström
Between the Pipes:
Frederik Andersen
Brandon Bussi
’s Men's Olympic Team.
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