Deen’s Daily: Several Avalanche Players Under the Weather; Goalie Attempts an NHL Comeback

The Avalanche had a scheduled day off from practice on Sunday and instead flew straight to Vancouver to prepare for Monday night’s matchup against the Canucks. Colorado also still has several skaters dealing with an illness that spread through the locker room. You gotta hope that extra day away from the rink helps.

In their last game, the Avs defeated the Nashville Predators 5-2 thanks largely to Mackenzie Blackwood. The goaltender made his Avalanche debut and stopped 37-of-39 shots to earn the win. As I do after every game, I shared my 10 Observations, which are published the morning after a game. The ‘Observations’ piece is always behind the paywall because it dives a little deeper into what I saw at the rink, who I spoke with in the dressing room, and things that are a little more exclusive than the usual post-game story. There’s also a ‘Good & Bad’ article posted the night of each game, which serves as a free recap of the game.

Here are my 10 Observations from the victory on Saturday. Some good stuff in here for those who are already CHN+ members. If not, what are you waiting for?!

Colleen Flynn also had a piece for the CHN+ community on Sunday. Her ‘Inside the Locker Room‘ feature was all about how the team managed to fight through the illness and still come away with two points against a division rival. Flynn does an excellent job running our YouTube page, which is also worthy of a subscription.

Around the NHL

Montreal Hockey Now: Get your full Habs Wrap here, with a full week of content on the Montreal Canadiens. Also in this story is a report that a former Habs goalie, and former teammate of Nathan MacKinnon and Jonathan Drouin, is looking to make his way back to the NHL.

New Jersey Hockey Now: James Nichols has the latest on three potential trade targets the Devils should consider to boost their scoring.

Detroit Hockey Now: One of the Red Wings’ top Swedish prospects was beyond shocked to receive the news that he will not be representing Sweden at the upcoming World Junior Championship.

Florida Hockey Now: The Panthers are trying to work their way out of a scoring slump. In a strange coincidence, the Panthers were shutout in consecutive games during a West Coast road trip on Dec. 12 and Dec. 14. The last time they were shutout in two straight games was on the same dates a year ago — Dec. 12 and Dec. 14 during a similar road trip on the West Coast.