Lines and D pairs for Avalanche vs. Blues tonight; Rantanen a game-time decision

ST. LOUIS – The Avalanche hope to get that third victory of the season in a few hours, at Enterprise Center against the St. Louis Blues. They may have to do it without Mikko Rantanen.

Rantanen, I’m told, will be a game-time decision to play. I’m not sure what’s wrong with him. If he plays, technically there was nothing wrong with him. If he doesn’t, well, we’ll have to find out after the game I guess.

Surprisingly, the Avalanche are a -125 favorite to beat the Blues at SuperBook Colorado (Blues are +115). The Blues won’t have Ryan O’Reilly and Brandon Saad, but they still have a good squad, are playing at home and are 5-0.

Here are the Avs lines and D pairs, as confirmed by the team:

This, of course, assumes Rantanen is in. We’ll see.

95 Andre Burakovsky – 29 Nathan MacKinnon – 96 Mikko Rantanen
92 Gabriel Landeskog – 91 Nazem Kadri – 25 Logan O’Connor
17 Tyson Jost – 37 J.T. Compher – 75 Sampo Ranta
43 Darren Helm – 12 Jayson Megna – 61 Martin Kaut

Defensemen

4 Bowen Byram – 8 Cale Makar
3 Jack Johnson – 6 Erik Johnson
56 Kurtis MacDermid – 28 Ryan Murray

Goaltenders

35 Darcy Kuemper
31 Jonas Johansson

Sam Girard didn’t make the trip. He’s still listed as day-to-day (aren’t we all?) and so MacDermid gets another start. I thought he played a bit better in the last game, but he’s obviously not Sam Girard.

The game is broadcast on Altitude tonight, so the Comcast situation applies.