ASA NHL TOP PLAY ON 10* Colorado Avalanche Puck Line (-1.5 goals) over Chicago Blackhawks, Thursday at 8:35 PM ET - No matter the goalies who start here we like Colorado strongly in this spot. However, we will note that Petr Mrazek is the expected starter for the Blackhawks. He is 2-10-1 with a 4.19 GAA this season! As for the Avalanche, Pavel Francouz is back and healthy and served as the back-up Tuesday and is likely to start here. He has allowed 2 or less goals in 5 of his last 7 starts. Even if Colorado does start Alexandar Georgiev here, he was showing signs of turning things around before his most recent start. In the 3 starts before that rough one he had allowed 3 or less goals in 3 straight starts. The key here is the team on team situation. Yes, the Blackhawks are off B2B wins but they lost 25 of 29 games prior to this 2-game winning streak. Also the win streak features a win over a bad Coyotes team and a win in overtime against a Flames team that fired 47 shots on goal and had a heavy shot edge. The point is we are not impressed. The Avalanche beat the Blackhawks 5-2 earlier this season. Though the Avs have endured some tough sledding on the ice recently, they are still the vastly superior team in this match-up and this is the perfect "get right" game against an outclassed opponent. Chicago just will not be able to keep up here. The Blackhawks are averaging only 1.8 goals scored per game over the last 30 games! Colorado averages 3 goals per game and this is still a team capable of "pouring it on" against weaker foes. This one should end similarly to their 5-2 meeting earlier this season as Avalanche are angry about rallying to tie their most recent game only to allow a late power play goal in the eventual loss. That said, this Avs team is ready to roll tonight. Road team in a blowout per our computer math model. Laying the 1.5 goals with the road favorite Colorado is the value play here.