Colorado vs Anaheim: Gibson’s Ducks to fight back but fail to hold the score

Colorado is on fire, having scored 31 goals in 5 games. Can Anaheim handle the Avalanche who have found their attacking style? Let's pick a few options to bet on at once.

The first thing that immediately comes to mind when talking about Jared Bednar's Colorado is, of course, the sparkling, gut-wrenching offense. In fact, the stretch leading up to the game against Anaheim was just a reminder of that once again. The opponents were, frankly, not the strongest – twice Vancouver, Seattle, San Jose and Ottawa. But 31 goals in 5 games is still very impressive, at least because it is more than 6 pucks per game on average.

It is interesting that the Avalanche offense has become so aggressive since Nathan MacKinnon got injured. It's hard to find a direct link here, again given the level of their recent rivals, but it's also wrong to ignore what happened at all. That may very well be the main problem for Coach Bednar, who has yet to have any success with the Avalanche in the playoffs. The coach still hasn't figured out how to effectively use his best player, which could be the deciding factor in a fiasco at key moments. We'll leave that as a hypothesis for now. Playing without MacKinnon against stronger opponents may help clarify things.

Dallas Eakins's team, even though it's not even at the end of the first quarter, has already surprised everyone. The Ducks not only made it to #4 in the Western Conference standings but they did it in a surprising offensive style. 63 goals scored in 19 games was amazing considering that the best score for coach Eakins always seemed to be 1-0, if not 0-0.

Anaheim approaches the game in Denver with two losses in a row – a home loss to Carolina and an away loss to Nashville. Prior to that, the Ducks had a great streak of eight straight wins. A really strong streak, which, however, should not be overestimated. The Ducks played the majority of the games on home ice and outplayed only Washington and St. Louis from really strong opponents. It looks like it is the upcoming game that will show the true level of today's Anaheim. The Ducks couldn't handle the Predators. And what about the Avalanche? A real challenge for the Ducks.

• Colorado: J. T. Compher, Nathan MacKinnon, Martin Kaut, Stefan Matteau, Pavel Francouz, Bowen Byram – not playing;
• Anaheim: Max Jones, Ryan Kesler, Max Comtois – questionable.

The opponents played each other 8 times last season, with Colorado victorious in 6 games.

Perhaps the only factor in Anaheim's favor here is John Gibson. The 28-year-old goaltender has only 9-4 in 15 starts, a passer rating of just 2.36 and 92.5 percent of shots deflected. Otherwise, don't overestimate the Ducks. The offensive style is more illusion than reality. It seems that once Ryan Getzlaf runs out of steam, the Ducks' goaltending will stop. Dallas Eakins is still standing his ground, unwilling to unleash what appears to be his team's most potent offensive potential. So Anaheim's 4th place finish in the West at the moment is more a coincidence, and a credit to Gibson and Getzlaf, than a consequence of coaching.

Prediction: John Gibson will not allow the Avalanche to realize every scoring chance, but will hardly be able to drag his team to the winning end.

• Colorado Not To Lose + Total Over (4.5) for 1.85;
• Colorado to win by 1 goal for 7.42;
• Correct Score 4-3 for 12.0.