The Colorado Avalanche didn’t have Nathan MacKinnon in their first meeting with the Dallas Stars, but they are hopeful he’ll be in the lineup for the second matchup.
MacKinnon, who has missed four games with a facial fracture and concussion, skated in a regular jersey during Friday’s practice and is on track to play when Colorado visits Dallas on Sunday afternoon.
It is the first of consecutive games between the teams, who will meet again Tuesday night in Denver.
The Avalanche were 3-0-1 without MacKinnon but need him if they want to keep winning. Colorado has just three regulation losses since late November, including a 3-1 setback at Dallas on Nov. 26. The Avalanche are 16-0-2 since their last loss in regulation, 5-2 at Nashville on Dec. 16.
The run of success for Colorado has justified its preseason hype as a legitimate Stanley Cup contender, and it has happened with MacKinnon scoring just nine goals and playing only 31 of the team’s 45 games. General manager Joe Sakic has built a deep team that has been able to play through injuries at key positions.
“There’s no quit in this team,” Sakic told reporters Thursday night. “Unlike other years, especially in January, we’ve come back in games where other years we might not have.
“Guys are believing in each other.”
Nazem Kadri has had a year of redemption after being suspended for the last eight games of the 2021 playoffs. Kadri has already tied his career high in points with 61 in just 42 games.
He is one of five or six players on the team who have a realistic chance of scoring 20 or more goals this season. Mikko Rantanen (24) and captain Gabriel Landeskog (20) have reached that mark and Kadri sits at 19 goals.
It won’t be easy for the Avalanche to get a win in Dallas on Sunday, especially with Joe Pavelski on the ice. Pavelski has 16 goals and 37 points in 47 career games against Colorado, and he had two goals in the November win against the Central Division rival.
Pavelski leads the Stars in points (48) and assists (29) but has been scoreless in the last five games. Dallas is 3-2-0 in those games and has won seven of its last 10 overall.
The Stars are coming off of a 4-3 overtime win against Winnipeg on Friday night. Captain Jamie Benn played a big role in that victory with a goal, an assist and a fight, which was against former teammate Brenden Dillon, who delivered a hard hit on John Klingberg.
His willingness to stick up for Klingberg made an impression on his younger teammates.
“That’s so important. That’s huge for us,” Jacob Peterson said. “He did that and it turned the game for us. It’s so important to have a guy like that, and he’s the captain, too. He’s leading the way, and for a young kid like me, it’s a pleasure to see him play and see him do that. I love him. We need him.”
Benn has only 12 goals and 10 assists this season, which is far off the pace of his best seasons. In a six-year stretch from 2013-14 to 2018-19, Benn averaged 33.2 goals and 42.8 assists a season.
–Field Level Media