Avalanche-Senators? Meh. Avalanche-Senators NHL Global Series in Sweden? Pretty cool. Avalanche-Senators in Matt Duchene’s first game as a Sen against his former team? Now we’re talking.
In the first part of the NHL’s new Global Series, the Colorado Avalanche and Ottawa Senators will face off in a two-game series this weekend at the Ericsson Globe in Sweden.
Why these two teams in Sweden? It’s something of a homecoming for Avalanche captain Gabriel Landeskog, for one. Landeskog is just 24-years-old and is already a seven-year vet in the National Hockey League. He has made the rounds as a Swedish Olympian, played for Djurgardens IF Stockholm (where the game is being played) in the Swedish league in the 2012 lockout, and is all-around one of the most talented Swedish players in North America.
Colorado will need him to play that way if he’s going to be the future.
Matt Duchene is officially out of the picture. Duchene has been at the center of trade rumors for a year and a half, and with all we know about the state of the Colorado Avalanche, they may not be done dealing yet. But Landeskog is still very young. It’s easy to forget given how long ago he made his rookie debut and how long it’s been since he was handed the Captain’s C.
That said, his contract is hefty, long, and his point total has declined every season since 2013.
He has five goals and five assists so far through 14 games. He made it clear that with Duchene gone, the team can now re-focus with the guys that “want to be there.” If Landy is the future, he will need to take an extra step up now.
Serving as Ottawa’s ambassador to Sweden is none other than Daniel Alfredsson. Alfie stepped away from a front-office role with the Sens to spend more time with his family, but is still the go-to Swedish face you want to see when the Sens play overseas.
Alfredsson himself has played before at Ericsson Globe. He was captain of the Senators in 2008 when the Senators played the Penguins in Stockholm that year for the NHL Premiere. Though the trip was brief, he said that the event ranked “very high in his career.” The only other player on either team to play an NHL game overseas in their career is Erik Johnson, who did so in Sweden in 2009 with the St. Louis Blues.
Take it from @DAlfredsson11, #NHLGlobalSeries will give the @Senators and @Avalanche memories to last a lifetime. https://t.co/Li51dwCjdb
— NHL (@NHL) November 9, 2017
Of course, there’s also that Erik Karlsson guy. He’s okay. And Swedish.
Karlsson is not the only Swede on the Sens roster. Veteran Johnny Oduya and 24-year-old Fredrik Claesson both hail from Stockholm. This is a big deal for many parties involved.
So if you’re asking, “Why these two teams?” remember that very few teams in the NHL can come up with two premier young Swedish talent like Landeskog and Karlsson.
One could argue that Detroit’s Henrik Zetterberg, New York’s Henrik Lundqvist or Vancouver’s Sedin twins could be draw, but all four of those players are in the twilight of their respective careers. Landy and Karlsson are the future of Swedish hockey.
Unfortunately, there are a couple of Swedish players on Colorado who will be unable to participate. Carl Soderberg is away to be with his wife for the birth of his child while Anton Lindholm is on the injured reserve with a broken jaw.
To the actual game: the Senators come in as the favorites at -135 with the Avs a +115. Home-ice advantage is obviously negated for the Avs today, just as it will be for the Senators tomorrow. And that’s a shame, because the Avalanche have actually played quite well in the comforts of home this season. They are 5-1 on home ice.
Perhaps they are hoping that it’s more the color of the jersey they wear as the home team that gives them their strength and not the geographic location. Maybe.
Craig Anderson will be going shot-for-shot with Semyon Varlamov today. Should the coaches want to rotate their starters on Saturday, expect Mike Condon-vs-Jonathan Bernier tomorrow.
Anderson and Varlamov are both off to rocky starts in their own right. Both have allowed three goals or more in six of their last seven starts. In his last start, he allowed six to the Vegas Golden Knights. Both have goals-against averages over 3.00.
Impressively, both have shutouts under their belts too. Their seasons have nearly mirrored each other to this point, and that is not a good thing.
Senators-Avalanche is typically a season series the Avalanche dominate, having won seven of eight leading into last season. With the Avs tanking and the Sens making a run to the Eastern Conference Final, however, Ottawa took both games against Colorado in 2016-17- both games coming less than two weeks apart in March.
At least the Avalanche are not in a shambles at present like they were in March. They are, however, much more toothless offensively than they were a week ago.
That’s because Matt Duchene is no longer a member of the team, as mentioned earlier. Duchene has an interesting conundrum on his hands. Playing against his old team is surely going to be bittersweet (or maybe just bitter given the way things ended). It stinks that many a player have their reputations tarnished by trade demands/negotiations in this salary cap age we live in. Martin St. Louis, for instance, gave everything to Tampa Bay, yet a tumultuous end to his tenure ruined his good standing with many fans.
Duchene was Colorado’s best player for a number of years, but the team also stunk for a number of years. With the exception of that one run to the playoffs in 2014, the Avs have been atrocious. And in those postseason games, Duchene scored zero times. There’s no fuzzy warm welcome awaiting him, at least there wouldn’t be if this game was in Colorado.
https://twitter.com/ryanclassic/status/927379402165334016
Which brings me to the silver lining here for Dutchy: he does not have to face Colorado fans. No one will wonder if he will be cheered or booed until next season. Distractions are at a bare minimum in this game other than seeing familiar faces on the opposing bench. This really is the best possible scenario.
Get the reunion out of the way and do it on neutral ice. Brilliant.
The Senators have been aided by the general lack of competitive hockey coming from the Atlantic Division this season so far, and are thus sitting in third place. Unless they want to be fighting with the rest of the pack for mediocrity, they will need to shore up defensively and find a spark.
Adding a new star center will often do that.
Colorado is in a points-tie with San Jose for the second Wild Card spot out West. Yeah. That’ll last.
Unfortunately, the Avs’ pleasantly surprising start will now be likely undermined by the absence of Duchene’s talent up front. Duchene had four goals and six assists to start the year. In any other year in any other circumstance, he’d be looked to as a leader and anchor as other depth players on this roster like Alex Kerfoot, Mikko Rantanen and Sven Andrighetto try to blossom into solid NHL players. Even Nail Yakupov has been playing well.
But the organization just can’t stay out of its own way.
So, what to expect tonight? A fired-up Duchene. Three fired-up Ottawa blueliners. An angry Gabriel Landeskog.
And a victory for the Ottawa Senators.
Prediction: Take the Senators to win. Play the under.
