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Posted at 12:30 PM EST.

9:05 PM EST. Regulation only. The Avalanche return home from a frustrating three-game trip in which they went to OT in all three games and lost all three. That’s three out of a possible six points but they didn’t skate off celebrating. They skated off with their heads down for the seventh game in a row and for the 17th time in their past 20 games.

This is a very frustrated host that now has to deal with the pressure of playing at home again. It is also a one-line team that was the best line in the entire league for half a season. It was a crazy, unsustainable pace and now Nathan MacKinnon, Gabriel Landeskog and Mikko Rantanen have come down to earth. In the last 11 games, MacKinnon has eight points, Rantanen has seven and Landeskog has six. Previously, those numbers would have been 16, 17 and 14. The Avalanche are playing “not to lose” instead of being aggressive, especially when they have a lead and this is not the foe you want to face when things are going badly.

Toronto is coming off a 4-1 loss to the Rangers but we have to wonder what the price on Toronto would have been here had they beaten the Rags 9-1 like they deserved to. That 4-1 loss in New York was without question the most misleading score of the season, as the Rags were under siege for 60 minutes and needed a once in a lifetime performance from Alexandar Georgiev, who stopped 55 of 56 shots. Additionally, it’s worth noting that on January 14th back in Toronto, the Maple Leafs arguably played their worst game of the season against the Avs. Colorado outshot Toronto, 36-20, dominated time of possession and beat the Leafs, 6-3. Colorado is 4-15 against top-10 competition and 8-24 against top-16 competition so beating the Leafs twice in a three week span is unlikely.

There is no chance of Mike Babcock not going over Toronto’s performance against Colorado last time out in the locker room before the game. The Maple Leafs are scoring goals in buches again with four or more in four of their last six and that should actually be five of six because they deserved eight goals on Sunday. A wounded prey awaits and so does a goaltender with zero confidence.

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