NHL Game of the Week: Colorado Avalanche vs. Boston Bruins

The NHL’s game of the week takes us to TD Garden in Boston where the Colorado Avalanche visit the Bruins on Saturday afternoon.

This will be the second and final meeting of the season between these two sides with Boston winning the first game 5-3 back in October.

The Avalanche enter Saturday’s matchup losers of their last two. The Avs lost 3-1 to the Wild on Monday and 3-2 in overtime to the Jets on Wednesday where they went 0 for 3 on the power play.

Colorado currently sits in the first wild card spot in the Western Conference with 58 points, one point behind the Stars for third place in the Central.

Superstar Nathan MacKinnon has just been absolutely phenomenal to this point in the season tallying 19 goals and 56 assists for a league-leading 75 points.

It just seems like whenever MacKinnon touches the puck something unbelievable happens and that doesn’t seem to be slowing down anytime soon.

Avs winger Mikko Rantanen has also been on a tear paired up with MacKinnon on the top line.

Rantanen ranks top ten in goals with 25 and points with 64.

Star defenseman Cale Makar has been lights out on the back end for Colorado with 53 points in 49 games and also a +15 on the year.

The Avalanche have gotten good production for the bottom six, especially from guys like Artturi Lehkonen, Ross Colton and Joel Kiviranta.

Lehkonen has 18 goals in 37 games and has added some great depth scoring.

The goaltending has been decent between the tandem of Mackenzie Blackwood and Scott Wedgewood.

The starter on Saturday Mackenzie Blackwood has posted a 2.57 goals-against average and a .916 save percentage.

The Bruins enter Saturday’s game fresh off a 2-0 victory over the Ottawa Senators.

Boston holds the third spot in the Atlantic Division with a 24-20-6 record and 54 points in a crowded Eastern Conference wild card race.

Seven teams are currently within four points of each other for the last two wild card spots or the third spot in the Atlantic.

The Bruins’ leading point scorer is David Pastrnak with 23 genos and 33 apples in 50 games this season.

Captain Brad Marchand has tallied 37 points in his 16th season in the league.

During Boston’s game against the Senators on Thursday night, Marchand got into a little bit of a brouhaha with Ottawa’s Nick Cousins.

Marchand took his glove off and put his bare hand on Cousins’ neck and choked him.

One of the Bruins’ biggest problems this year is the lack of depth scoring.

The next highest point-getter behind Marchand and Pastrnak is Paval Zacha with 28 points in 50 games.

One of the Bruins’ marquee free agent signings was Elias Lindholm who signed a seven-year deal worth $7.7 million AAV.

Lindholm has been centering the third line and has yet to really find his groove as he has been in an offensive slump all season with only eight goals in 50 games.

The biggest issue with Boston’s lineup is the guys who have been between the pipes and it simply just hasn’t been good enough.

Jeremy Swayman has been nothing short of disappointing this year after the performances he put together last postseason.

Swayman holds a 3.00 GAA and a .896 save percentage in the 35 starts he’s made this year.

Joonas Korpisalo owns a 9-4-0 record with a 2.70 GAA and a .899 save percentage.

Korpisalo is coming off a 29-save shutout on Thursday and is primed to get the nod again on Saturday afternoon.

Puck drop is set for 1 p.m. EST on Saturday.

Austin Moran is a second-year majoring in broadcast journalism. To contact him, email acm6506@psu.edu