COLORADO AVALANCHE NOTES:
TONIGHT’S OPPONENT – NY RANGERS
Tonight is the first of two meetings between the Avalanche and Rangers and Colorado’s lone visit to Madison Square Garden in 2023-24…Both matchups last season went to a shootout, with the Avs prevailing here in New York and the Rangers winning in Denver…The Avalanche are 4-0-1 in their last five meetings with the Broadway Blueshirts and 7-1-2 in their last 10.
BACK-TO-BACK
The Avalanche are playing their fifth set of back-to-back games as they face the Rangers tonight and Devils tomorrow…Colorado will play a total of eight back-to-back games in 2023-24, tied for its fewest since relocating to Denver (also 2008-09)…The Avs are 1-2-1 in the first contest of a back-to-back this year and 3-1-0 in the second…The Avalanche posted a combined 19-5-2 (.769) record in 13 back-to-back contests last season, second in the NHL behind Boston (23-3-2, .857)…Colorado finished 9-3-1 in the first game and was a league-best 10-2-1 (.806) in the second.
ONE MONTH AT A TIME
The Avalanche finished 9-3-0 in January, the 32nd consecutive month that Colorado has not posted a “losing month” (meaning the club had a .500 or better record in that particular month)…This current run, which began in February 2019, is the third-longest active streak in the NHL and tied with the late 1960’s and early 1970’s Boston Bruins for the sixth-longest such streak in league history…Thirty (30) of these last 32 months for the Avalanche featured a winning record, as only October 2021 (4-4- 0) and October 2022 (4-4-1) did not.
EAST SIDE STORY
All six opponents on this season-long road trip are in the Eastern Conference…The Avalanche are 12-6-0 against Eastern Conference teams this season, 8-2-0 at home and 4-4-0 on the road…Colorado finished 18-11-3 against the East last year, 8-6-2 at home and 10-5-1 on the road…The Avs are 73-31-9 (.686) against the Eastern Conference since 2019-20, the best record of any Western Conference team during that span.
NEW YORK RANGERS NOTES:
RANGERS RUNDOWN
– The New York Rangers return from the All-Star break with a two-game homestand beginning with the Colorado Avalanche in game No. 50 of the season (7:00 PM ET – TV: MSG Network – Radio: ESPN 98.7 FM). New York will play four of their next five games at home. – Tonight is Black History Night at Madison Square Garden. – New York has points in three of its last four games (2-1-1) and was the seventh team in the NHL to reach the 30-win mark. – The Avalanche are one of two teams (NY Islanders) the Blueshirts have not played this season yet. The Rangers have points in four of their last six home games against the Avs (3-2-1). – This past weekend, Igor Shesterkin and Vincent Trocheck were members of the winning team at the 2024 NHL All-Star Game in Toronto, defeating Peter Laviolette’s team in the final. – Last season in games following the All-Star break, the Rangers finished the season with a 20-8-5 mark for 45 points, tied for the fifth most points in the NHL. – With New York’s next win, Peter Laviolette will surpass Al Arbour for the seventh most wins in NHL history by a head coach with 783. Tonight, Laviolette will surpass Darryl Sutter for the ninth most games coached in NHL history (1,480). – In the last 17 games (since Dec. 27), Artemi Panarin (22 pts) and Vincent Trocheck (18 pts) have recorded a combined 40 points (19G-21A). LAST GAME – New York has the NHL’s third best power play percentage (27.2) and ranks tied for eighth in penalty kill percentage (82.7). – The Rangers’ 54.1 faceoff percentage is the fourth highest in the NHL. Since 1997-98 when the league started tracking FOW%, the team hasn’t finished a season over 53.3 percent. – New York has accumulated 121 points from defensemen this season, the fourth most in the NHL. – The Blueshirts have 14 come from behind wins this season, tied for the fifth most in the NHL and seven comeback wins after trailing in the third period, tied for the sixth most in the NHL.
