Deen’s Daily: Avalanche Taking it Easy Before Playoffs

The next home game at Ball Arena will be a playoff game. The Avalanche’s first-round opponent is pretty much locked in at this point. Also, one of the bigger chips to fall on trade deadline day scored a goal with his new club.

All that and more on this edition of Deen’s Daily — April 11.

Colorado Hockey Now

Nathan MacKinnon didn’t play in last nights matchup against the Vancouver Canucks. His status for the final regular-season games on the road this weekend is unknown.

Martin Necas and Samuel Girard returned but the Avs still lost 4-1 to the Canucks. Colorado was without Jonathan Drouin, Ross Colton, Josh Manson, Ryan Lindgren, and, of course, MacKinnon. I wouldn’t be too worried about the long list of injuries for these remaining regular-season games. They’re all considered day-to-day.

If I had to guess, I’d say they’re all ready for Game 1 of the postseason. The only person I’m not confident about saying that for is Manson.

Around The NHL

Winnipeg Beats Dallas: The Jets won the game of the night on Thursday, defeating the Dallas Stars 4-0 to all but lock up the No. 1 seed in the Central Division. The Stars are now six points back with three games remaining for both clubs. It’ll take a miracle for them to catch Winnipeg at this point.

Hope you’re all ready for that Colorado vs. Dallas series.

Pittsburgh Hockey Now: The Pens’ stars recalled their memories of the late Ray Shero. Also, Kyle Dubas was officially named GM of Team Canada’s World Championship roster.

Montreal Hockey Now: Which centermen should the Habs target this summer to play with Ivan Demidov?

NYI Hockey Now: The Islanders got embarrassed on Thursday. It was bad. Very bad.

Florida Hockey Now: The Panthers beat Detroit and ended what little hope the Red Wings had at making the playoffs. More importantly, Brad Marchand scored his first goal with the Panthers.