Semyon Varlamov starts Friday when the Avalanche meet Anaheim in what has to be considered a must-win situation at the Pepsi Center.
GAME NOTES
The Avalanche trail Arizona by five points for the second wild card playoff position in the Western Conference with 12 games to go, and they can’t afford to lose any of their remaining seven home games.
The Ducks will be playing their third game in four nights and are coming off a 6-1 loss to Arizona on Thursday, so a quick start is highly recommended.
“Our start’s going to be key tonight,” coach
Jared Bednar said after the morning skate. “We have to get on the balls of our feet, we have to get on our toes, we have to get skating and make our speed a factor. No better time than to get after a team than tonight.”
The Avalanche haven’t played since Monday when they put up 38 shots in a 3-0 loss to Carolina, so there are no excuses.
"We've seen some really good hockey by our group here recently, and it's got to be every night," Bednar said. "It's 12 games. We got to lay it on the line every night and find a way to get results. Even last game, we felt we played a pretty good game and didn't get the result we wanted. We have to find a way to get results.
“We’ve had the three-day break here to kind of reset mentally and physically and get rested. We’re falling further in the standings. We have to win. You can’t leave it up for grabs, so that means when the puck hits the ice tonight we have to be ready.
“We definitely needed (the break). We’ve got some guys who are dinged up. I think also the grind of what we’re going through right now, where we are in the standings ... it wears on you mentally, so you got to get away from it for a day or two to kind of get reset, refocused. It (was) an important break for us physically and mentally as well.”
The probable lineup:
Derick Brassard -- Nathan MacKinnon -- J.T. Compher
Colin Wilson -- Carl Soderberg - Mikko Rantanen
Alexander Kerfoot -- Tyson Jost -- Matt Calvert
Gabriel Bourque - Andrew Agozzino -- Sven Andrighetto
Samuel Girard -- Erik Johnson
Ian Cole -- Tyson Barrie
Nikita Zadorov -- Patrik Nemeth
Semyon Varlamov
Philipp Grubauer
Colorado Avalanche Blogger •Avalanche Insider • 
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