Deen's Notebook
Avalanche vs. Kings, Game 78: Lines, Starting Goalies & How to Watch

It’s been a struggle for the Colorado Avalanche against the Los Angeles Kings this season. On Saturday night, they will get one last chance to solve them. It turns out, they might be catching the Kings at the right time.
Once the hottest team in the league after the trade deadline, the Kings have fallen back a bit, losing four of their last six games. They’re now in danger of starting the playoffs on the road.
The Avalanche, meanwhile, have won six of their last seven games to move themselves into first place in the Central Division.
With Mikko Rantanen getting his 50th goal on Thursday night, the only big milestone left to catch is for him to hit 100 points. He currently sits at 98.
There was some hysteria on Thursday when people took Bednar’s comments of Cale Makarย having “no timeline” as being out “indefinitely.” I wasn’t so sure about that. Yesterday, Bednar said he considers him to be “day-to-day” and they are just trying to make sure he’s healthy for the playoffs. He is not expected to play, but we won’t know until the team hits the ice for warmups.
The Avalanche did not hold a morning skate on Saturday afternoon, but expect Alexandar Georgiev to start against the Kings. It’s too big of a game to start anyone else. Expect either Jonas Johansson or even Pavel Francouz to start on Sunday against the Ducks. Francouz is on the trip and appears to be the closest player to returning.
Pheonix Copley is expected to start for the Kings. There is an NBA game taking place at Crypto.com Arena at 1 PM, so they’ll have to change the building over for the game tonight. That means the ice may not be fantastic.
Expected Colorado Avalanche Lines
Evan Rodrigues – Nathan MacKinnon – Mikko Rantanen
Denis Malgin – J.T. Compher – Valeri Nichushkin
Andrew Cogliano – Lars Eller – Logan O’Connor
Matt Nieto – Alex Newhook – Ben Meyers
Defense
Devon Toews – Samuel Girard
Bowen Byram – Jack Johnson
Kurtis MacDermid – Erik Johnson
Goalies
Alexandar Georgiev
Jonas Johansson
Expected Los Angeles Kings Lines, per LAHockeyNow.com
Quinton Byfield-Anze Kopitar-Adrian Kempe
Trevor Moore-Phil Danault-Viktor Arvidsson
Alex Iafallo-Blake Lizotte-Arthur Kaliyev
Carl Grundstrom-Rasmus Kupari-Jaret Anderson-Dolan
Defense:
Vladislav Gavrikov-Drew Doughty
Sean Durzi-Matt Roy
Sean Walker-Jordan Spence
Goalies:
Pheonix Copley
Joonas Korpisalo
Special Teams
Colorado Avalanche Power Play: 24.9%, 5th in NHL
Colorado Avalanche Penalty Kill: 79.1%, 16th in NHL
Los Angeles Kings Power Play: 25.2%, 3rd in NHL
Los Angeles Kings Penalty Kill: 75.3%, 24th in NHL
How to Watch
TV: ESPN+, Altitude TV
Radio: Altitude Sports Radio 92.5
Game Time: 8:30 PM MST