NHL Thursday Preview Chicago Blackhawks vs. Colorado Avalanche, New York Rangers vs. Calgary Flames
Chicago Blackhawks vs. Colorado Avalanche (9:00 PM ET)
Chicago Blackhawks and Colorado Avalanche will face off twice in the next three days, on Thursday at the Pepsi Center in Denver, Colorado, United States, and again on Saturday but next time it will be on the Blackhawks home-ice.
Both teams are scheduled to play against each other four times this season, of which two games will take place in this week alone. Colorado was successful in three out of the four last season, which gives Chicago all the more reason to turn it around this
time as they eye another Stanley Cup championship after poorly defending it last season.
The Blackhawks, as good as they might be, will make a grave mistake if they consider Colorado to be a weak team. Last season, the Avalanche certainly remained on the down-low and ended it in the Eastern Conference’s bottom ranks, but this time around, they
have had one of their best starts in franchise history.
At the moment, Colorado has won the past five out of six matches straight after a single loss in their season opener against Detroit Red Wings. They are just coming out of a win against the rowdy Toronto Maple Leafs in overtime, a team that was also nearly
as perfect.
"Good start to the year for us, but now we have to move ahead here", Joe Sacco said. "We don't want to put it behind us -- we want to reflect on the things that we did well, the positive things and carry them over here moving forward, but we have to look
at our opponent Thursday night".
Like championship teams who get a good start off to the season, Colorado is also hoping for the same with their record so far. It will be thrilling to see if Chicago can finally shutdown the Avalanche or will they be buried underneath as well?
New York Rangers vs. Calgary Flames (9:30 PM ET)
It is not hard to see that the Calgary Flames have had better season and could be a better team with the talent they have on their line-up, but with Calgary, anything can happen at any time, like they did near the end of the last season.
Last season, Calgary might have waited too long to turn up the flames, but it almost worked. Now if they do not want to meet the same fate, they will have to turn up the heat sooner than later.
Calgary Flames and New York Rangers will be meeting for the first time this season on Thursday, October 20, at the Scotiabank Saddledome in Calgary, Alberta, Canada.
Both teams are coming out winning their previous matches, which has given them the much needed momentum to continue winning, but could create a clash of interests which both clubs have seen many times before.
Olli Jokinen and Alex Tanguay remain hot for Calgary and have been setting up plays for the team when they need them the most while New York has had a mixture of contribution from its players, where one individual is not standing out of the crowd, except
for their goalie, Henrik Lundqvist, who is blocking the numerous shots that get through the Rangers defence.
Calgary hopes to continue winning while New York also looks to extend their streak to three.
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