Whipping out our magnifying glasses for this Colorado Avalanche versus New York Rangers showdown, we got some interesting digits to crunch through, folks. Not well, folks. Just folks.
Talking about men between pipes, the Colorado Avalanche has been in pretty safe hands, or should that be gloves? Mackenzie Blackwood has been showing some friction-defying skills with 92.7 save % this season, and Scott Wedgewood backing him up pretty decently. On the other hand, we've got the Rangers' net guarded by Igor Shesterkin who's competed 91.5% of the saves this season and Jonathan Quick, he's really quick but maybe not as much as his surname suggests with a save % of 89.8.
Moving onto the skaters, the Avalanche are powered by a high-performing quartet. Nathan MacKinnon with his 56 assists and Mikko Rantanen with his 25 goals are running the show. Artturi Lehkonen and Cale Makar are also consistent contributors. For the Rangers, Artemi Panarin is leading the tango with a healthy 20 goals and Adam Fox tailing him with 36 assists. Vincent Trocheck and Filip Chytil have been putting in their bit too.
Examining the fossils of past match-ups, these Rangers and Avalanche took turns lamenting their losses with each team winning one of the last three matches on their home ice.
Switching gears to the regular season records, Colorado's tasted victory 28 times with only 20 losses and 2 pity points. The Rangers, by comparison look like they've been playing hockey on roller skates with 24 victories, 20 losses and that's right, 4 pity points.
Taking a peek into their recent forms, Rangers have had a roller coaster January, losing and winning alternately, while the Avalanche have found themselves on the wrong side of the scoreline a bit too often recently.
Cracking the calculations, and my head in the process, and voila! Here comes the prediction:
Albert’s Prediction: New York Rangers by 2