Hunter Miska in goal for Avs tonight

Hunter Miska gets NHL career start No. 2 tonight in Minnesota, where the suddenly-streaking Avs hope to win their fourth in a row against the Wild at Xcel Energy Center (by the way, did everyone notice the Ball Corp. logos on the ice last night? They are obviously a sponsor there too, along with having naming rights of the Avs’ home building now).

There was no morning skate today and thus no media availability with the coach, so I don’t have any lineup information, other than who is starting in goal. Coach Jared Bednar said last night that he didn’t expect Erik Johnson to be a player for today.

It should be quite a good feeling tonight for Miska, as he is a Minnesota native (from North Branch). Too bad his family and friends can’t be in the stands to watch, though.

By the way, Zach Parise had some pretty nice things to say about the Avs last night:

Parise: “That team is good. They’re the class of the league. They play a good style of hockey. They’re fast. Their top line is arguably one of the best in the league. So, it was a little different type of game than we had played in the first eight.”

— Sarah McLellan (@sarah__mclellan) January 31, 2021

The conspiracy-minded part of me wonders if Parise is just saying that to butter the Avs up too much, maybe soften ’em up a bit.

We’ll have full coverage of the game tonight right here, so check back soon.