Chicago Blackhawks: Another huge week for playoff chase
Saturday, at the Colorado Avalanche
This road tilt against the Colorado Avalanche at the Pepsi Center in Denver will be the first half of a home and home back to back with them. This is one of the teams the Blackhawks are chasing in the race to the final Wild Card Spot, so this will certainly be a high stakes matchup.
Colorado started off as one of the best teams in the National Hockey League, firmly in playoff position halfway through December and looking like a team that might make some noise in the playoffs. They also iced one of the two or three very best forward lines in the entire league. The line of Gabriel Landeskog–Nathan MacKinnon–Mikko Rantanen scores a very high percentage of their goals and the team goes where they take them.
The Blackhawks will catch a break because the line is currently only 2/3 as strong because Landeskog is out for the rest of the season with an injury. MacKinnon and Rantanen however, are still very capable of burning you on the score sheet. The Blackhawks better be on the lookout for these two, especially in Colorado because their head coach Jared Bednar will have last change and get will try to get the best matchups for his top guns as much as he possibly can.
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Toews and Kane will need to have big games you would think, because of the firepower the Avalanche can throw your way. This weekend matchup is very important for the Blackhawks if they want to squeak into the playoffs. The Blackhawks currently lead the season series 2-1 with the road team winning all three matchups.