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Patrick Roy: Chicago will top us in Central Division

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James OBrien

The Colorado Avalanche are getting ready to play against the Chicago Blackhawks tonight. It’s a chance for the Avalanche to try and narrow the nine-point gap between them and the Central Division leaders.

They might win the night, but surprisingly not even Colorado coach Patrick Roy thinks they’ll win the race.

“We know that Chicago is going to be on top in our [division],” Roy told NHL.com’s Brian Hedger. “We don’t think we’re going to battle with Chicago in the standings.

“I’d like to be very positive, but at the same time I see where we are and this is a very good team [we’re playing].”

Coaches paint their team as the underdogs all the time, but to preemptively declare the other squad as the victors is pretty rare. Even still, perhaps he hopes it will light a fire under his struggling players.

The Avalanche got off to a 14-2-0 start this season, but they’ve been just 9-8-3 since then. They have also dropped three of their last four contests, although two of those defeats came in shootouts.

This will be their second contest against Chicago this season. Colorado earned a 5-1 victory over the Blackhawks on Nov. 19.

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