Colorado Avalanche
Avalanche Vs. Oilers: MacKinnon Gets Reinforcements Back Against McDavid
It has taken until the middle of March for the Colorado Avalanche and Edmonton Oilers to face-off this year, but they’ll see a lot of each other over the final 33 days of the regular season.
Saturday night is the first of three matchups between the Oilers and Avalanche over the next month, which means we’ll get an awful lot of the “McDavid vs. MacKinnon” narrative in the National media, particularly for this game, seeing as how it’s on Hockey Night in Canada. An NHL game is never just between two players though, and MacKinnon will be getting some real important reinforcements back on his side.
Jonathan Drouin, Artturi Lehkonen, and Zach Parise are all expected to return to the lineup on Saturday night for the Avalanche against the Oilers. Where they line up is a bit of an unknown, but those are some pretty solid additions to make. Drouin will head right back to the top powerplay unit, while Lehkonen appears slated to play on the second unit. To make room for these guys on the roster, Fredrik Olofsson was sent back to the Colorado Eagles.
There’s always good news and bad news when it comes to the Avalanche, though. Miles Wood and Cale Makar both missed morning skate due to illness. While both are expected to play, you never know with illness, and it’s been running through the team of late. That will be something to monitor right up until gametime. The Avalanche are still carrying and extra forward and defenseman on the trip, if needed.
Alexandar Georgiev will start in net for the Avalanche against the Oilers.
I was on Edmonton radio last night previewing the game. You can listen to that radio hit here. I’ll be on Edmonton Sports Talk again tonight at 6:45 MST doing the same.
Expected Colorado Avalanche Lines (best guess)
Artturi Lehkonen – Nathan MacKinnon – Mikko Rantanen
Jonathan Drouin – Casey Mittelstadt – Valeri Nichushkin
Miles Wood – Ross Colton – Yakov Trenin
Brandon Duhaime – Andrew Cogliano – Zach Parise
Defense
Devon Toews – Cale Makar
Samuel Girard – Josh Manson
Jack Johnson – Sean Walker
Starting Goaltender
Alexandar Georgiev
Expected Edmonton Oilers Lines
Nugent-Hopkins – McDavid – Hyman
Mcleod – Draisaitl – Foegele
Kane – Henrique – Brown
Janmark – Carrick – Perry
Defense
Ekholm – Bouchard
Nurse – Desharnais
Kulak – Ceci
Starting Goaltender
Stuart Skinner
Special Teams
Colorado Avalanche Power Play: 24.9%, 6th in NHL
Colorado Avalanche Penalty Kill: 814%, 9th in NHL
Edmonton Oilers Power Play: 26.7%, 3rd in NHL
Edmonton Oilers Penalty Kill: 79.8%,14th in NHL
How to Watch
TV: ESPN+, Altitude
Radio: 92.5 FM Radio
Game Time: 8:00 PM MST