In the battle with the Blue Jackets

Columbus Blue Jackets (0-1-0) @ Colorado Avalanche (0-1-0)

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The Avalanche will look to bounce back against the Blue Jackets in their home opener on Saturday. This will be the first of two conference meetings between the clubs as the Avalanche travel to Columbus on April 3rd. Both teams are fighting for their first win of the season.

Latest results: October 9, 2024: COL 4, VGK 8

October 10, 2024: CBJ 2, MIN 3

Avalanche @ Golden Knights 9/10/24 Recap

In the season opener, the Avalanche lost 8-4 to the Golden Knights on Wednesday night at T-Mobile Arena. Mikko Rantanen opened the scoring in the first period and recorded his eighth career hat trick during the game, while Casey Mittelstadt scored the third of four Colorado goals. For Vegas, Ivan Barbashev and Victor Olofsson each scored two goals, while Zach Whitecloud, Mark Stone and Brett Howden contributed one goal each.

Avs successes

With his two assists on Wednesday, Nathan MacKinnon recorded the 900th and 901st points of his career. In 792 games, MacKinnon has 335 goals and 566 assists and is 45 points behind Michel Goulet, who sits at No. 3 on the Avalanche/Nordiques' all-time scoring list.

With two assists in the season opener, Samuel Girard scored the 200th and 201st points of his career. He has 31 goals and 170 assists in 476 games.

Story

The Avalanche are 43-18-6 all-time against the Blue Jackets, including 23-9-2 at home. The teams will split the 2023-24 season, with each club defending its own ice. The Avalanche won 6-1 on March 22nd and the Blue Jackets won 4-1 on April 1st.

Where the wild things are

Like the Avalanche, the Blue Jackets lost their season opener on the road, falling 3-2 to the Minnesota Wild on Thursday at the Xcel Energy Center. Minnesota's Matt Boldy scored first at 17:51 of the first period before Kent Johnson tied the game for Columbus at 2:00 of the second period. The next two goals came from Minnesota, thanks to Joel Eriksson Ek at 16:35 of the second period and Mats Zuccarello on the power play at 9:58 of the third period. Zach Werenski cut Minnesota's lead with a power play goal at 17:06, but the Wild emerged victorious.

Columbus-Colorado Connections

There are members of each of these organizations who have spent time with the other. Blue Jackets defenseman Jack Johnson played 179 regular season games and 27 games for the Avalanche, including winning the Stanley Cup in 2022. On the other hand, Avalanche general manager Chris MacFarland worked for the Blue for 14 seasons Jackets and served as the team's director of hockey operations from 2000 to 2007 and assistant general manager from 2007 to 2015. Additionally, Avalanche head coach Jared Bednar spent four seasons as a coach in the Blue Jackets organization, as an assistant coach from 2012 to 2014 and as head coach from 2014 to 2016 for their AHL affiliate, the Springfield Falcons and Lake Erie Monsters.

Statistics you should know

MacKinnon has 21 points (5g/16a) in 19 career contests against Columbus.

Rantanen leads the Avalanche with three points (3g), while Cale Makar (2a), Samuel Girard (2a) and MacKinnon (2a) are tied for second in the three-way tie with two points.

The Avalanche posted the league's best home record of 31-9-1 in 2023-24.

Columbus in numbers

Kent Johnson leads the Blue Jackets with two points (1g/1a), while Werenski (1g), Damon Severson (1a), Yegor Chinakhov (1a) and Cole Sillinger (1a) are tied for second with one point.

Numbers game

4

With his eighth career hat trick on Wednesday, Rantanen moved into fourth place in Avalanche/Nordiques history for most hat tricks, passing MacKinnon. He is now in third place behind Goulet (13 hat tricks).

3

Mittelstadt enters Saturday three points shy of 200 points for his career. In 358 games he scored 67 goals and 130 assists.

2

Two Avalanche players completed their rookie round in Las Vegas on Wednesday as Calum Ritchie and Ivan Ivan made their NHL debuts. Additionally, Nikolai Kovalenko made his regular-season debut for the Avalanche on Wednesday. He appeared in two playoff games for Colorado in 2023-24.

Quote that left its mark

“Every man missing makes the job more difficult. But it forces our team to immediately delve into the details and commitment of the game.”

– Bednar in the team dealing with the loss of Jonathan Drouin, who is sidelined with an upper-body injury