MacKinnon In, Blackwood Gets The Nets As Avs Face Game 4 Pressure

Colorado gets a lift with MacKinnon back in the lineup, and that alone changes the feel in the room. The bigger wrinkle is in goal, where Blackwood is getting the start and everybody in the building knows the margin gets thin this time of year. The Avalanche do not need a lecture on what Game 4 can do to a series, because the stakes are already sitting right there on the ice. This is the kind of decision tree that tells you whether a team is just surviving the playoffs or trying to drive them.