Avalanche vs. Blues, Game 36: Lines, Starting Goalies & How To Watch

The last time the Colorado Avalanche and St. Louis Blues played each other, it got ugly. Really ugly. The Blues had not one, but two players register a hat trick against the Avalanche, and embarrassed the team from Colorado on their home ice. After the game, Jared Bednar was as angry as I’ve seen him in his tenure with the Avalanche, saying that his team quit in the third period.

After giving up five straight goals on Wednesday night in their brutal loss to the Coyotes, the Avalanche should be mighty motivated when they take on the Blues in St. Louis tonight. They’ve been pretty good about bouncing back after ugly losses this season, and they will need to on Friday.

Both the Avalanche and Blues held optional skates Friday morning, so it’s hard to gauge who will play. Ross Colton is a question mark for Colorado after blocking a shot on Wednesday around his knee. We likely won’t know until closer to game-time if he’s good to go. The Avalanche did recall Ben Meyers on Thursday, so he’s with the team. He could replace Colton in the lineup if necessary, but he’s exclusively been playing wing in the NHL this year.

Sam Girard is not expected to return against the Blues, but it shouldn’t be too much longer until he’s back in an Avalanche uniform. Alexandar Georgiev is expected to get the start in net.

Colorado may catch a break, as the Blues are dealing with the flu bug going through their locker room. Their head coach Drew Bannister said this morning that they still aren’t sure what their lineup tonight is going to be. The only thing we really know for sure is that Jordan Binnington is going to get the start in net, despite Joel Hofer being the better netminder for the Blues of late. They’re going back to Binnington because of his regular season success against the Avalanche of late.

Expected Colorado Avalanche Lines

Valeri Nichushkin – Nathan MacKinnon – Mikko Rantanen

Miles Wood – Ross Colton – Jonathan Drouin

Andrew Cogliano – Ryan Johansen – Logan O’Connor

Kurtis MacDermid – Fredrik Olofsson – Joel Kiviranta

Defense

Devon Toews – Cale Makar

Bowen Byram –  Josh Manson

Jack Johnson – Sam Malinski

Goalies

Alexandar Georgiev

Expected St. Louis Blues Lineup

Buchnevich – Thomas – Kyrou

Neighbours – Schenn – Kapanen

Saad – Hayes – Toropchenko

Maceachern – Sundqvist – Blais

Defense:

Leddy – Parayko

Krug – Faulk

Scandella – Perunovich

Goalies:

Jordan Binnington

Special Teams

Colorado Avalanche Power Play: 24.6%, 8th in NHL

Colorado Avalanche Penalty Kill: 83.5%, 7th in NHL

St. Louis Blues Power Play: 11.1%, 32nd in NHL

St. Louis Blues Penalty Kill: 79.3%, 18th in NHL

How to Watch

TV: Altitude 2, ESPN+

Radio: 950 AM

Game Time: 6:00 PM MST