An Avalanche of offense

The Nashville Predators were on an 8-0-2 run when the KIngs beat them on Saturday. To win tonight, and end their road trip with a winning record, the Kings will have to end another streak. Colorado enters tonight’s game with six consecutive victories and has moved up to fourth place in the Western Conference with 42 points in 33 games.

The Avalanche are winning with offense, and winning despite a staggering run of injuries. Their 121 goals are 10 more than any other Western Conference team, and they have totaled 27 goals during their six-game win streak. Second-year forward Matt Duchene, who doesn’t turn 20 until next month, has 13 goals and 21 assists in 33 games. Paul Stastny, who turns 25 next week, has 13 goals and 19 assists in 32 games. Kings coach Terry Murray certainly has taken notice.

MURRAY: “It doesn’t surprise me. That’s what we saw a lot last year, too, was the real attack attitude. They want to get a play to the net right off the rush, and they have some skill players. The young kids down the middle there, with Duchene in particular, they’re dynamic players. They have the speed, quickness to do some things in the offensive zone, and they’re making it happen for their team. A lot of pucks going to the net, a lot of hard driving to the net and getting those hard, ugly goals.

“They’re on a roll. They’ve won six games in a row and when you get that kind of momentum behind you, that’s when you start to get the kind of goals like we saw us score against Nashville the other day. You just pop it up over the goalie’s head, and they’re just finding a way to go in. When you get on that kind of a roll, it’s nice. We need to get to that look. We’d love to get to a six-, seven-, eight-, nine-game winning streak, put some solid points on the board with confidence in our play.”