Open Thread: Colorado Avalanche vs. Pittsburgh Penguins (5:00 p.m. MT)

Colorado heads to Pittsburgh to round out this road trip.

After what ended up being a pretty hectic Monday for the Colorado Avalanche, they head to Pittsburgh to take on the Penguins and round out this road trip they’re on. This will be the first of two matchups between these teams this season, with the second coming later in March.

Colorado Avalanche

Colorado heads into this game hoping to close out the road trip strong, after having lost only one game on this trip up this point. More notably however, the Avs head into this game with a brand new fact gracing the lineup, as they made a trade yesterday to acquire goaltender Mackenzie Blackwood from the San Jose Sharks.

With that move, Colorado has now completely overhaulded their goaltending tandum in the span of about 11 days or so. We won’t get our first look at Blackwood tonight unfortunately, as he’s under the weather, so he’ll meet the team in Denver instead. Trent Miner was also recalled yesterday to presumably back up Scott Wedgewood in net tonight.

Projected Lineup

Artturi Lehkonen – Nathan MacKinnon – Mikko Rantanen
Ross Colton – Casey Mittelstadt – Valeri Nichushkin
Joel Kiviranta – Parker Kelly – Logan O’Connor
Givani Smith – Ivan Ivan – Chris Wagner

Devon Toews – Cale Makar
Samuel Girard – Sam Malinski
Keaton Middleton – Calvin De Haan

Pittsburgh Penguins

Despite the slow start early in the season, the Penguins have started to figure it out a bit as of late and have been winning games, as they’ve won five of their last six games. This is a team that is trying to pull themselves out of the hole they’re in and get into a playoffs spot this season, so they likely won’t go quietly tonight.

If Colorado wants to win this final game on their road trip and finish strong before heading back to Denver, starting on time tonight similarly to how they started in New Jersey will be incredibly important.

Projected Lineup

Rickard Rakell – Sidney Crosby – Bryan Rust
Drew O’Connor – Evgeni Malkin – Cody Glass
Michael Bunting – Blake Lizotte – Jesse Puljujarvi
Kevin Hayes – Noel Acciari – Anthony Beauvillier

Marcus Petterson – Kris Letang
Owen Pickering – Erik Karlsson
Ryan Graves – Matt Grzelcyk

Goaltenders

As previously mentioned, we unfortunately won’t get our first look at Blackwood tonight, as he’s sick and will meet the team in Denver instead. For Colorado, that means it’ll be Scott Wedgewood in net tonight with Trent Miner backing him up. Wedgewood will be playing across from Tristan Jarry, who has been starting to find his game a bit as of late after struggling to start the season.

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