Colorado Avalanche vs. Dallas Stars Live Blog: In-Game Analysis

The Colorado Avalanche take on the Dallas Stars Friday night at 8:30 pm Eastern Time, at the American Airlines Center in Dallas, Texas.  

I'll be live blogging my thoughts and analysis throughout this game. Here's a quick preview for Friday night's contest.

The Avalanche come into this game white-hot, with an NHL-best record of 10-1-0. They have posted a remarkable 20 points in their first 10 games.  

They trail the San Jose Sharks by two points in the conference standings, but the Sharks have played two more games.  

It's been somewhat of a surprising start for the Avs. They were expected to hover around the fifth spot in their new Central division, but their talented young nucleus of players has exceeded expectations thus far.  

Twenty-two-year-old star center Matt Duchene is off to a phenomenal start, tallying nine goals and four helpers in 11 games, per ESPN.   

Semyon Varlamov has also been herculean in the pipes for Colorado so far. In eight starts, he's 7-1 with a 1.76 goals-allowed average and whopping .945 save percentage.  

Despite being arrested on Wednesday for domestic violence charges against his girlfriend, the 25-year-old Russian netminder will start for Colorado Friday night. 

For the Stars, this season has been a different story. They are treading water with a 5-6-1 record in their first 12 games. They've played a very tough schedule early on, however, and things certainly don't get any easier Friday night.  

Lately, the Dallas offense is having trouble scoring goals consistently. Instead they've been coming in spurts. This team is still searching for a definite identity and is acclimating itself to several new pieces.

Dallas' success always starts and ends with goaltender Kari Lehtonen. Among goalies with at least seven starts, Lehtonen has the third-best SV% at .945 and is second in GAA at 1.66 league-wide, per ESPN.  

Star forwards Tyler Seguin, Jamie Benn and Alex Chiasson will lead the charge against Colorado's core of Duchene, Gabriel Landeskog, Nathan MacKinnon and Ryan O'Reilly.

This figures to be a great matchup, and I'll be covering it live right here. Enjoy!