The Tampa Bay Lightning carry one of the best records in the NHL into Ball Arena on Friday, Oct. 23, when they face the Colorado Avalanche at 9 p.m. ET. This Lightning vs Avalanche Oct 23 preview comes with Tampa Bay sitting at 7-2-0 and Colorado looking to shake off a rough week at 5-4-1, making it the headline test of an early-season Western swing for the Eastern Conference club.
Tampa Bay enters having won five of its last six games, including a 6-2 rout of the Vegas Golden Knights on Oct. 20 in which Nikita Kucherov tied Steven Stamkos for the franchise scoring record with 1,137 career points. Colorado, meanwhile, has dropped three of its last five, most recently a 4-3 loss to the New Jersey Devils on Oct. 21.
Lightning Vs Avalanche Game Information
- Date: Friday, Oct. 23
- Time: 9 p.m. ET
- Venue: Ball Arena, Denver, Colorado
- TV/Streaming: ESPN+, The Spot – MTN, Altitude Sports
- Series note: First meeting of the 2026-27 season between the two clubs
By The Numbers
- Goals (season totals): Colorado 41, Tampa Bay 31
- Points (season totals): Colorado 116, Tampa Bay 74
- Shots on goal (season totals): Colorado 306, Tampa Bay 268
- Shooting percentage: Colorado 13.4%, Tampa Bay 11.6%
- Save percentage: Tampa Bay .903, Colorado .897
- Goals against average: Tampa Bay 2.56, Colorado 3.00
- Power-play goals: Colorado 6, Tampa Bay 4
- Faceoff percentage: Tampa Bay 48.5%, Colorado 47.8%
- Penalty minutes: Tampa Bay 76, Colorado 80
Tampa Bay Lightning Outlook
Tampa Bay’s 7-2 start is its best since the franchise opened 7-1-1 in 2020-21, the season it went on to win the Stanley Cup. The Lightning have outscored opponents by a wide margin behind a .903 team save percentage and a 2.56 goals-against average, both better marks than Colorado’s defensive numbers this season.
Brandon Hagel leads the team with seven goals, while Kucherov paces the roster with nine assists and 13 points. Kucherov has points in all 15 career games against Vegas, and he carried that form into the 6-2 win on Oct. 20 when Anthony Cirelli scored twice and Hagel, John Carlson and Victor Hedman each added goals. Andrei Vasilevskiy is listed as the probable starting goalie after stopping 32 shots in that Vegas win.
Tampa Bay was 5-0-0 at home before this road trip began but dropped to 1-2-0 away from Amalie Arena prior to the Vegas victory. Center Anthony Cirelli is listed as day-to-day with an undisclosed injury and his return date is listed as Oct. 23, while Yanni Gourde remains on injured reserve following hip surgery with a projected return date of Dec. 2. Lightning coach Jon Cooper called the current road stretch, which runs through Denver and Salt Lake City, “a legitimate early-season test,” saying of Colorado, Utah and the other Western teams on the trip, “These three teams sit there and you could put them in a grouping of the class of the West.”
Colorado Avalanche Outlook
Colorado sits at 5-4-1 and has lost three of its last five games, including back-to-back defeats to Philadelphia and New Jersey by matching 3-2 and 4-3 scores. The Avalanche still lead this matchup in raw offensive output with 41 goals and 116 points on the season compared to Tampa Bay’s 31 goals and 74 points, and their power play has converted six times compared to Tampa Bay’s four.
Nathan MacKinnon leads Colorado with 10 assists and 16 points, while Artturi Lehkonen has a team-leading eight goals after scoring twice in the loss to New Jersey. Gabriel Landeskog also scored in that game, and goaltender Scott Wedgewood made 37 saves in a losing effort. Mackenzie Blackwood is listed as the probable starting goalie for Friday.
Colorado will be without center Nicolas Roy, out with a lower-body injury and projected to return Oct. 25, and left wing Zachary L’Heureux, out with an upper-body injury with a projected return of Oct. 28. Center Georgii Merkulov remains on injured reserve with an undisclosed issue and a projected return date of Oct. 28. Defenseman Brent Burns played his 1,015th consecutive game in the loss to New Jersey, a streak that sits 49 games shy of Phil Kessel’s NHL ironman record.
Key Matchup
Colorado’s offense, which has produced 41 goals and 306 shots on goal already this season, will test a Tampa Bay defense that has allowed just 23 goals and posted a .903 save percentage behind Vasilevskiy. The Lightning defense held Vegas to two goals on Oct. 20 with contributions up and down the lineup, and replicating that discipline against a Colorado group that scores at a 13.4% clip will be central to the result.
On the other end, Tampa Bay’s top line of Kucherov and Hagel will look to exploit a Colorado penalty-killing unit that has already surrendered six power-play goals this season, while Wedgewood and Blackwood both face a Lightning lineup that has scored in every game this season.
What To Watch
Tampa Bay’s trip continues the following night in Salt Lake City against Utah, part of what Cooper described as a demanding back-to-back at high altitude. A win in Denver would extend the Lightning’s best start since their 2020-21 Stanley Cup run, a season that was part of three straight Final appearances for the franchise between 2020 and 2022.
For Colorado, snapping a two-game slide matters early in a tightly packed Central Division, where the Avalanche sit at 5-4-1 and within range of the division’s top teams. Cirelli’s status for Tampa Bay and the health of Colorado’s trio of injured forwards remain the situations to track before puck drop.
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