Denver, CO (Sportsbooks) - The Tony Granato era starts tonight in Colorado as the Avalanche welcome the
Edmonton Oilers to the Pepsi Center in a Northwest Division battle.
Colorado fired head coach Bob Hartley on Wednesday and promoted Granato, an assistant, to head coach. In four-plus seasons with the Avalanche, Hartley posted a 193-109-48-9 record, including a 10-8-9-4 mark this year.
Granato, who is in his first season as a coach with the Avalanche, played in 773 regular season games with the New York Rangers, Los Angeles Kings, and San Jose Sharks.
Colorado is unbeaten in its last two (1-0-1) following Monday's 2-2 tie with the Washington Capitals.
Milan Hejduk scored the game-tying goal late in the second period for the Avs, while Steven Reinprecht also scored for Colorado, which played its 14th overtime game of the season (1-4-9). Patrick Roy stopped 23 shots for the Avalanche.
Hejduk has a five-game points streak (3g, 3a).
Colorado was again without star forwards Peter Forsberg (ankle) and Joe Sakic (sore neck), who were both injured in a 4-3 overtime loss to Edmonton on December 13. The pair have now missed two straight games and continue to be listed as day-to-day.
Edmonton comes in on a sour note following back-to-back losses, including Tuesday's 4-3 overtime setback in Minnesota.
The Oilers got two goals from Mike York and 18 saves by Jussi Markkanen. Mike Comrie also scored in the losing cause.
Edmonton, which has 38 points, sits in third place in the Northwest, five points ahead of the Avalanche and five points back of the division-leading Wild.
The Oilers, who are 2-0-1 this season against the Avs, are 5-3-2 in their last 10. However, Edmonton is just 1-5-1 in its last seven in Colorado.
The National Hockey League celebrates its 85th Anniversary today, as it was on December 19, 1917 that the first slate of games was played. The Montreal Canadiens defeated the Ottawa Senators, 7-4, in Ottawa and the Montreal Wanderers downed the Toronto Arenas, 10-9, at Montreal.
In its first season of competition, the four-team National Hockey League, which replaced the National Hockey Association as the major professional hockey circuit in the East, adopted the same playing rules as its forerunner.
However, those rules drastically differed from those employed today by the league. Some of the differences include: no blue lines; no forward passing beyond the center red-line; no icing rule; unlimited overtime; one referee and, when necessary, a referee's assistant; a maximum of 12 players in uniform for each team per game; three-minute minor penalties.
