NHL Hockey
2008-02-01 - Colorado Avalanche at Detroit Red Wings
A Sports Betting Pick by Grga
Fri Feb 1, 2008 -- 7:30 pm EST
Detroit (38-10-4)
Detroit are the best team in league with 38-10-4 score and 80 pts. They lead or are in top of the league in almost all stats.
Leading scorer Henrik Zetteberg is back in team after missing 2 games while defense men Brett Lebda and Niklas Kronwall have small injuries but will probably play.
Detroit are in very good form with 5 stright wins.
Colorado (27-20-4)
The Avs are in trouble.
(C) Paul Stastny (17 goals, 32 assists in 46 games), (LW) Ryan Smith (11 goals, 17 assists in 36 games) and captain Joe Sakic (7 goals, 15 assists in 24 games) are on injured reserve.
On Wed, Jan 30 Colorado goalkeeper Jose Theodore injured his back and will probably miss some time - there is still no conformation about severety of his injury but Avalanche recalled goaltender Tyler Weiman from Lake Erie of AHL so he will not play for sure tonight.
The Avalanche (27-20-4) are part of the extremely tight playoff race in the rest of the conference, which features 10 teams separated by just eight points and needs to stay at least near the playoffs till their key players get healthy.
STATS COMPARISON
Detroit home 20-4-2 *** Colorado away 9-12-3
Current form (last 5 games)
Detroit W-W-W-W-W*** Colorado OTL-W-L-L-W
GFA
Detroit 3.26 (3rd) *** Colorado 2.73 (14th)
GAA
Detroit 2.05 (1st) *** Colorado 2.70 (16th)
Power Play (%)
Detroit 21.6 (3rd) *** Colorado 13.4 (29th)
Penalty Kill (%)
Detroit 84.2 (8th)*** Colorado 81.7 (15th)
H2H THIS SEASON
09.01.2008 Detroit-Colorado 1:0
28.12.2007 Colorado-Detroit 2:4
THE VERDICT
This two teams are big rivals.But in last few seasons Detroit is dominating and has won 11 out of last 13 games.
Without 4 important players it will be hard for Colorado to avoid loss in this game.
