Tonight, the Utah Hockey Club is set to square off against the Colorado Avalanche at the Delta Center in Salt Lake City.
The Utah Hockey Club and Colorado Avalanche have been two of the biggest surprises throughout the first couple weeks of the NHL season but for opposite reasons.
Utah came out of the gates on fire, shocking the hockey world with its high-powered offence. The early season legs led to three straight wins to start the year, but it has cooled off since losing three of its last four games.
The Avalanche started the year shockingly poorly, losing their first four games and being outscored 25-13. Since then, the Avs have looked much better, winning three straight games. Tonight's game will be an exciting matchup, with both teams trending in opposite directions. Here is a complete game preview of tonight's NHL matchup between the Utah Hockey Club and Colorado Avalanche.
Utah Hockey Club vs. Colorado Avalanche Game Preview
Despite their slow start, the Avalanche have had no issues putting the puck in the back of the net. Colorado averages 3.43 goals per game and has the third-best powerplay percentage in the NHL.
The Avalanche's offensive prowess will be a significant concern for Andre Tourigny and the Utah Hockey Club, as Utah has conceded four or more goals in four of its seven games.
However, despite scoring at a top-10 rate in the NHL, Colorado is struggling to win games because it has had the worst goaltending in the NHL. Their goalies have only saved 82.78% of the shots they have faced, more than two percent lower than the next worst team. Utah must take advantage of this poor goaltending to compete in this game.
Between Utah's defensive issues and Colorado's goaltending issues, this game will likely be high-scoring. However, the Avalanche's second-worst penalty kill unit in the NHL through the first two weeks of the season will also play into that.
Usually, with a penalty kill unit struggling this bad, you would think it would be a massive advantage in Utah's favor. Still, the Hockey Club has struggled on the powerplay in their last four games, only scoring one goal on 12 opportunities.
This game between the Colorado Avalanche and the Utah Hockey Club can potentially be a shootout. The key to victory in this one will be discipline, staying out of the box, not giving the Avalanche opportunities to the man advantage, and letting their elite powerplay unit go to work. If Utah can keep this game at five-on-five, they will stand a chance of beating one of the favorites to win the Western Conference. If we see Utah taking penalties early, the Avalanche could run them out of the building faster than the Centers did last night.