Colorado Avalanche at Tampa Bay Lightning
The Avalanche are coming off a 3-2 win against Florida last night, a game that they maybe should have lost. However, that’s why you have a goalie, so he can cover your third period mistakes. That win gives the Avalanche five wins in their last six games but now they are faced with the dreaded ‘back-to-back on the road’ situation and they get the team tied for first in the Atlantic division. Expect them to go with J.S. Giguere in net and he’s had his own problems of late; Giguere has lost his last four starts and given up 17 goals in those four games (and that includes Calgary and a sliding Vancouver team).
The Lightning have won two in a row but their record at home is what worries me most: since the Christmas break, the Lightning are 1-3-2 in their own barn and have given up at least three goals in four of those six games. One source of their issues of late has been the penalty kill; for part of the season they were middle of the pack, but they have given up 13 power play goals against in their last 12 games rolling along at an absolutely brutal 70.5-percent in those dozen contests.
It’s always tough to anticipate teams in different conferences playing each other for the first time. Usually, I never take either goalie in those situations because it’s too much of a crapshoot.
All that said, the Avs are still playing two in a row on the road and Tampa Bay has 12 goals in their last three games. I will be picking quite a few Tampa Bay players tonight but will probably leave Colorado alone altogether because it’s just too risky for me.
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Top RW Value |
Top LW Value |
Top C Value |
Top D Value |
Bargain Bin |
|
Nikita Kucherov $6608 |
(COL) $5243 |
(TBL) $9566 |
Victor Hedman $10,722 |
Max Talbot (COL) $5992 |
