MacKinnon, Rantanen in Avs lineup tonight vs. Vegas

The Avalanche host the Vegas Golden Knights at Ball Arena tonight in the club’s fourth preseason game, and the news takeaway is that Nathan MacKinnon and Mikko Rantanen will make their preseason debuts.

Still no Cale Makar, though, as he continues to progress through his “procedure” from the off-season. Jared Bednar said Makar is “fine” and seems to indicate he’ll be good to go to the start the regular season.

Here is the Avs roster for the contest (and that of Vegas):

The game will be broadcast on Altitude TV, and on ESPN+. But, only for “out of market” customers. As always, if you have Comcast or Dish Network and live in the Denver metro area, you’re screwed.

I’ll be paying close attention to how guys like Shane Bowers and Pavel Francouz and Sampo Ranta look tonight. I would say that there is something of a “battle” between Bowers and Ranta for a potential regular-season roster spot.

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