"If Matt Duchene were to put out a tweet on his new Twitter account of Friday night's Avalanche win over the Atlanta Thrashers, it might be something in today's teenage parlance like: "Gr8t win for the boyz in the ATL. Now on to Wash!"

Via his vocal cords, Duchene afterward called Colorado's 4-2 victory over Atlanta at Philips Arena "our biggest win of the season."

"We were a desperate team tonight. We needed a win and we got it," Duchene said.

But for the Avs, there always seems to be a price to pay for any win, a sacrifice to the medical room. Right wing Milan Hejduk, who scored what proved the game-winner early in the third period, left the game soon after with a groin pull and didn't return."