• The Colorado Avalanche start their longest home stand of the season, with the first of seven games coming on Thursday night against the Ottawa Senators. It’s the first matchup between the two this season.

Both teams have had some notoriously high-scoring games against each other recently. With Ottawa’s push for a playoff spot out East and the Avs’ depth taking a hit, we could be in for another barn burner.

Colorado Avalanche (31–4–7, 69 pts)

For the first time since April 2025, the Avalanche lost two straight games in regulation. It came at the hands of the Tampa Bay Lightning, 4–2 on Tuesday night. The losing streak began on Sunday night after the Florida Panthers took advantage of the Avs being on a short back-to-back.

They will be without Gabriel Landeskog and Devon Toews for some time. Of the two, the latter has a muscle issue. Unfortunately, Landeskog’s situation is less well-known, and others will have to step up in their absence.


Now is the time for the likes of Gavin Brindley, Ross Colton, and Victor Olofsson to shine. But when the big guns of Nathan MacKinnon and Martin Necas go cold as they did in Florida, it makes the job much harder. Nonetheless, Colorado looks to get back to winning ways on home ice to start the seven-game home stand.

Projected Lines

Artturi Lehkonen – Nathan MacKinnon – Martin Necas
Ross Colton – Brock Nelson – Valeri Nichushkin
Gavin Brindley – Jack Drury – Victor Olofsson
Zakhar Bardakov – Parker Kelly – Ivan Ivan

Samuel Girard – Cale Makar
Josh Manson – Brent Burns
Ilya Solovyov – Sam Malinski

Scott Wedgewood
Trent Miner

Ottawa Senators (20–17–5, 45 pts)

Ottawa is coming into the Mile High City with tired legs after playing Wednesday night against the Utah Mammoth. They lost by a score of 3–1.

The Sens, despite being above .500, are last in the Atlantic Division but only four points out of a playoff spot. It shows how competitive and close the entire Eastern Conference is. However, in the last seven games, they’ve gone 2–4–1.

This game wraps up a quick two-game road trip for Ottawa. Tim Stutzle has been leading the way all year for them, and he’ll look to lead his squad to the road win without Linus Ullmark, who has left the team for personal reasons.

Projected Lines

Drake Batherson – Tim Stutzle – Dylan Cozens
Brady Tkachuk – Shane Pinto – Fabian Zetterlund
Michael Amadio – Ridley Greig – Claude Giroux
Nick Cousins – Stephen Halliday – David Perron

Jake Sanderson – Artem Zub
Thomas Chabot – Nick Jensen
Tyler Kleven – Jordan Spence

Mads Sogaard
Leevi Merilainen

Game Details

Time: 7:00 p.m. MT

Watch: Altitude, Altitude+, KTVD, TSN5 (OTT), RDS2 (OTT), ESPN+ (Out of Market Only)

Listen: Altitude Sports Radio 92.5 FM/AM 950