Avalanche vs. Golden Knights, Preseason Game 6: Lines, Starting Goalies & How to Watch

And then there was one, as the Colorado Avalanche will take on the Vegas Golden Knights in their preseason finale Thursday evening.

That’s enough reason to celebrate, if you ask me.

Avalanche defenseman Cale Makar will make his preseason debut against the Golden Knights, and can’t wait to get going.

“I’m excited,” Makar said this morning. “I wanted to get into preseason, and things worked out the way that they did. It’s just going to take a while to get the pace and everybody moving together.”

There was some good news this morning, as Mikko Rantanen skated on his own, then briefly joined morning skate. Josh Manson did the same thing. Neither of them will be playing tonight, but both are expected to be ready for opening night. Jared Bednar was less sure about Andrew Cogliano, but said “he’s close.”

The Avalanche did make some cuts on Thursday, as both Joel Kiviranta and Brandon Kozun have been released from Avalanche camp, and invited to camp for the Eagles. As of this morning, they’re still deciding what to do.

One player getting a long look is Sam Malinski. I don’t expect him to make the opening night lineup, but they want to see how close he is to contributing.

“I think he’s had a couple preseason games where he’s been really good, and a couple of preseason games where he’s been not so good,” Bednar said. “The consistency side of it has got to improve, but he certainly has a great set of tools and started to use his strengths more as camp’s gone on.”

Lineups

These are the players definitely playing, and my best guess at lines, based off what I saw at morning skate…

Forwards:

Artturi Lehkonen – Nathan MacKinnon – Jonathan Drouin

Tomas Tatar – Ryan Johansen – Valeri Nichushkin

Miles Wood – Ross Colton – Riley Tufte

Kurtis MacDermid – Fredrik Olofsson – Logan O’Connor

Defense:

Devon Toews – Cale Makar

Sam Girard – Bowen Byram

Jack Johnson – Sam Malinski

Goalies:

Alexandar Georgiev

Justus Annunen

Here’s the projected lineup for tonight

Marchessault-Eichel-Barbashev
Cotter-Stephenson-Stone
Amadio-Howden-Dorofeyev
Carrier-Roy-Kolesar

Hague-Pietrangelo
McNabb-Theodore
Hutton-Pachal

Hill

— SinBin.vegas (@SinBinVegas) October 5, 2023

Special Teams (Last Season)

Colorado Avalanche Power Play: 24.5%

Colorado Avalanche Penalty Kill: 79%

Vegas Golden Knights Power Play: 20.3%

Vegas Golden Knights Penalty Kill: 77.4%

How to Watch

TV: TNT

Radio: Altitude Sports Radio 92.5

Game Time: 8:00 PM MST