Colorado Avalanche v Montreal Canadiens Live

Opening the season with two consecutive wins, the Colorado Avalanche are back to square one after falling to the Nashville Predators and Chicago Blackhawks last week. Thus, Milan Hejduk and the Avs will travel to Quebec for their encounter with the Montreal Canadiens on Thursday at 11:30 p.m. GMT.

Much like the Avalanche, the Canadiens got off to a good start into the season but subsequently hit a slump they have yet to climb out of. More specifically, the Habs dropped three straight versus the Calgary Flames, Vancouver Canucks and Edmonton Oilers. Especially the humiliating 7-1 blow-out loss versus the Canucks raised a lot of questions about the dedication and energy level of coach Jacques Martin’s squad. Over the first two weeks of play, 30-year old defenseman Paul Mara led the Canadiens’ scoring with four assists.

In contrast, very few expect the Colorado Avalanche to be a playoff candidate and were surprised by the fairly decent performance of the Avs thus far. Posting a 2-1-1 record, the team around Wojtek Wolski and Milan Hejduk came very close to securing a third victory in their penalty shootout defeat in Chicago. Above all, the young team has shown a tremendous effort on the defensive end of the ice and held their opponents to just nine goals in four games. Considering the aforementioned circumstances, the game between the Colorado Avalanche and Montreal Canadiens could certainly go either way. While the Avs have performed better defensively, the Habs are undoubtedly the more experienced which could become a factor if the game stays close until late in the third period.

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