Colorado Avalanche lines, D pairs, goalie for Jets tonight

Pavel Francouz gets the start for the Colorado Avalanche tonight in Winnipeg, against a Jets team whose playoff chances are on life support. That’s one of the storylines for the game, after a two-day break for the Avs.

Sam Girard is cleared to play again – but he won’t play tonight. As Jared Bednar said the other day, he wants to give him another day before returning. He is expected to play tomorrow night in Edmonton. Valeri Nichushkin will play, after missing one game with illness, the Avs said.

So, these look to be the lines and D pairs for tonight:

Burakovsky-MacKinnon-Rantanen

Lehkonen-Compher-Nichushkin

Newhook-Sturm-Kubel

Cogliano-Helm-O’Connor

D

Toews-Makar

Byram-Manson

J. Johnson-E. Johnson

NOTEBOOK: Kurtis MacDermid will be a healthy scratch. … The Jets have lost their last three games and it’ll take a minor miracle for them to make the playoffs. … Blake Wheeler won’t play for the Jets tonight. He was hurt in Wednesday’s game against Detroit. Wheeler is the team’s third-leading scorer. … Avs are -180 favorites to beat the Jets tonight at SuperBook Colorado. … Hey, CHN fence-sitters: The playoffs are coming. I’m offering new subscribers $5 off right now for signing up today. You’ll get 12 months of Avs coverage for $24.99 instead of $29.99 by using the promo code 5off in the checkout box. The link to do that: right here. We’ve got some good things in store too, including a cool new app, coming very soon.