Colorado Avalanche v Detroit Red Wings Live

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Albeit the Red Wings might not have been able to dominate the Western Conference like they used to in the past, the team around veteran defender Nicklas Lidstrom still posted a decent 44-24-14 record to secure a playoff birth in 2009-10. Yet, unlike in 2008 and 2009, Detroit did not make it to the Stanley Cup Finals as they were eliminated by the San Jose Sharks in the second round. Thus, the Detroit Red Wings are hoping to get off to a good start into the season when they face Paul Stastny and the Colorado Avalanche on Tuesday at 11:30 p.m. GMT.

While the Wings' front-office may not be overly content with Detroit's performance as of late, the Avalanche are very excited that the young squad of coach Joe Sacco made it to the playoffs last year after having spent the 2008-09 season at the bottom of the league. Especially center Paul Stastny had an excellent year, recording no less than 20 goals and 59 assists for a total of 79 points. Trying to avoid a slow start into the season, the Avalanche can be expected to play with a lot of energy when they meet the Wings on the road on Tuesday.

You can watch all games of the Colorado Avalanche and Detroit Red Wings right here on www.watchlivenhl.com, the home of NHL live streaming.

Posted: 17th October 2009

Given the fact that the Avalanche finished at the bottom of the Western Conference in 2008-09, very few expected Milan Hejduk and the Avs to start the season with four wins in six games. In contrast, it is somewhat surprising that the Stanley Cup finalists from Michigan posted a sub par 2-3-0 record so far and are still looking out of synch. Thus, the Detroit Red wings will host the Colorado Avalanche at Joe Louis Arena on Saturday at 11 p.m. GMT.

Even though the Avs did no pull off any blockbuster moves during the off-season and lost franchise cornerstone Joe Sakic, the squad of coach Joe Sacco looked much better in the first two weeks of play than last year. More specifically, the team performed well on both ends of the ice as they held their opponents to just 13 goals in six contests while scoring 21 themselves. There have been many bright spots in the Avalanche offense thus far, especially Milan Hejduk, Wojtek Wolski and Kyle Quincey played extremely well and combined for 7 goals and 19 points to lead Colorado’s scoring.

The Red Wings on the other hand dropped three out of five and have not been able to live up to their expectations early in the season. Coming off back-to-back Stanley Cup Finals appearances, the team around Nicklas Lidstrom is expected to be a contender in 2009-10, provided they get their act together as they season goes on. Most importantly, the Wings experienced unforeseen defensive problems and allowed a whopping 3.8 goals per contest. Nonetheless, Detroit can still be considered to be everyone’s favorite to clinch a win versus the Avs since the team is basically the same as last year and has vastly underachieved thus far. While it remains to be seen whether Colorado can keep up their high level of play, it appears to be a safe bet that the match-up between the Avalanche and Red Wings should be a hard-nosed battle between two competitive teams.

You can watch all games of the Colorado Avalanche and Detroit Red Wings right here on www.watchlivenhl.com, the home of NHL live streaming.