Avalanche Gameday: Lineup vs. Dallas Tonight, MacKinnon Misses Practice

A couple of Colorado Avalanche practice notes before getting to the lineups for tonight’s preseason game in Dallas against the Stars:

Neither Nathan MacKinnon nor J.T. Compher participated. MacKinnon took a puck to the face at practice yesterday and lost some blood in the process. There is no word on his condition, mainly because Jared Bednar had no media availability afterward, as the team headed straight to the airport. We’ll know more tonight, but I haven’t heard that it’s anything serious. Same with Compher, who was said to have taken a maintenance day yesterday, but this was a no-show for the second straight day.

Ben Meyers and Evan Rodrigues got some time on the first power-play unit, with MacKinnon not out there. They are both in the lineup tonight, so I would assume they’ll be on the first PP for the game as well. Darren Helm skated in practice, albeit in a red non-contact jersey. Not much else of note happened out there.  The Avalanche will again play the Stars Wednesday night at Ball Arena.

Here is the lineup for the contest tonight, which can be seen via streaming here. As always, you can listen to the dulcet tones of Avalanche radio man Conor McGahey.

Rosters for tonight’s Avalanche-Stars preseason game in Dallas. pic.twitter.com/Qy1se5taKV

— Matthew DeFranks (@MDeFranks) October 3, 2022

As you can see, Pavel Francouz will start the game, against Jake Oettinger. Cale Makar and Mikko Rantanen will make their first preseason appearances, along with Valeri Nichushkin. All the forwards I mentioned this morning, vying for Avalanche roster spots, are in tonight. So, it goes without saying this game is big for them.