Game 4 Open Thread: Colorado Avalanche vs. Dallas Stars (7:30 p.m. MT)

Despite the improbable three-year return of Gabriel Landeskog to Ball Arena ice for Game 3 on Wednesday, the roars from the crowd and the chants of “Landy, Landy” were not enough for the Avs to set forth their best effort on the ice. A sloppy game that saw the Avalanche struggle to generate sustained offense, complete simple passes, and overwhelm a confident Dallas Stars team in enemy territory, who skated away with a 2-1 Overtime victory off the stick of Tyler Seguin, and a 2-1 series lead to boot.

Coming into Game 4, the Avs’ backs are against the wall, and they know it in the locker room. They stare down the barrel of a 3-1 series deficit if they can’t change their fortunes offensively, and it starts with the top players. To win the game and ultimately the series, you need your best players to be your best players, and there are a lot of guys who know they need to flip a switch.

Colorado Avalanche

The mission for tonight’s Avs is straightforward: get the offense in a groove. In games 2 and 3, the Avs struggled mightily to generate sustained offensive pressure, which in turn led to a lack of dangerous scoring chances. A lot of this is on the Avs’ top players, as none of them have performed as needed for the Avs to achieve success.

Nathan MacKinnon has another gear to find, Valeri Nichushkin needs to build off of a strong Game 3 performance following a horrid Game 2, and you need some contributions from the likes of Jonathan Drouin, Artturi Lehkonen, Martin Necas, and Brock Nelson. On top of the forwards, Cale Makar has yet to make a positive impact on this series from the backend, and his struggles on the offensive end have been the catalyst. He was supposed to be a major X-factor in this series without Miro Heiskanen to match him on the other side, but it has been Thomas Harley who has filled the shoes of Heiskanen and delivered in this series in a way Cale has not. The Avs need Makar to turn it around.

While the lineup will remain the same for the Avalanche tonight, there will be some shuffling to the line combinations. Firstly, after a strong return to action for the captain, Gabriel Landeskog will see a promotion to the second line tonight, skating alongside Nelson and Nichushkin. Landeskog was not afraid to be physical at all in his long-awaited return, leading the Avs in hits (6), and while his timing was off with the puck, he was involved in the play each time he was out there. Jonathan Drouin gets the demotion to the third line, alongside Charlie Coyle and Joel Kiviranta.

Mackenzie Blackwood will start for the Avs. He has the highest goals saved above expected (GSAx) amongst goaltenders thus far in the postseason, and gave the Avs every opportunity to remain in games 2 and 3. At the same time, the skaters struggled to beat Oettinger on the other side. Despite strong numbers of a 2.07 goals against average and a .923 save percentage through his first three career NHL playoff games, those are going to be difficult numbers to maintain against a strong Stars group, so the Avs skaters need to help him with some offense before the Stars get going themselves.

Projected Lineup:

Artturi Lehkonen (62) — Nathan MacKinnon (29) — Martin Necas (88)

Gabriel Landeskog (92) — Brock Nelson (11) — Valeri Nichushkin (13)

Jonathan Drouin (27) — Charlie Coyle (10) — Joel Kiviranta (94)

Parker Kelly (17) — Jack Drury (18) — Logan O’Connor (25)

Devon Toews (7) — Cale Makar (8)

Ryan Lindgren (55) — Josh Manson (42)

Samuel Girard (49) — Sam Malinski (70)

Mackenzie Blackwood (39)

Scott Wedgewood (41)

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