After a troubling loss in Denver, the Avalanche are ready for the rematch.
It was less than a week ago when the Colorado Avalanche celebrated the return of three regular forwards back into their lineup but was soundly beat by the Washington Capitals in a 5-2 loss. With a result like that, a quick rematch is ripe for some tasty revenge as the Avalanche hope to build on their win in Philadelphia and continue a successful east coast road trip.
Colorado Avalanche
The visitors have enjoyed a quiet week with little lineup drama following the return of their trio of forwards last week. The only known question mark is the health of Alexandar Georgiev who missed the last two games and is possibly back in net tonight. Otherwise, the task for the Avalanche is finding line chemistry and more scoring at even strength.
Projected Lineup
Jonathan Drouin-Nathan MacKinnon-Artturi Lehkonen
Val Nichushkin-Casey Mittelstadt-Mikko Rantanen
Joel Kiviranta-Ivan Ivan-Logan O’Connor
Miles Wood-Parker Kelly-Nikolai Kovalenko
Devon Toews-Cale Makar
Samuel Girard-Josh Manson
Calvin de Haan-Sam Malinski
Washington Capitals
Easily the biggest story for either team in this contest is the loss of Alex Ovechkin who is now out week-to-week due to a lower body injury suffered in the Capitals’ previous game. The chase for Gretzky’s record is put on pause for a little bit and Washington will have to deal with the loss of their captain, who has only missed 35 games due to injury over his entire career. To fill that hole in the lineup Washington called up their 2022 former first round pick Ivan Miroshnichenko for his first game this season.
Projected Lineup
Connor McMichael-Dylan Strome-Aliaksei Protas
Andrew Mangiapane-Pierre-Luc Dubois-Tom Wilson
Ivan Miroshnichenko-Lars Eller-Jakub Vrana
Brandon Duhaime-Nic Dowd-Taylor Raddysh
Jakob Chychrun-John Carlson
Martin Fehervary-Matt Roy
Rasmus Sandin-Trevor van Riemsdyk
Goaltenders
Alexandar Georgiev was able to practice the other day and might be deemed healthy enough to start after his two-game absence. Coach Bednar declined to confirm who is starting in net, however. For the Capitals, they will continue riding with Logan Thompson.