Preview: Avs head to Buffalo for a showdown with Bo Byram and the Sabres

Both teams arrive on a slide; who will keep slipping, and who will turn things around?

The Colorado Avalanche will take their talents to Buffalo to face former Avalanche Bowen Byram and the Sabres tonight. The Avalanche have dropped their last two contests and hope to get things headed in the right direction against a Sabres team that has lost its previous three games. Can Casey go Mittelstadt mode and help the Avalanche right the ship? Or will the Sabres get back in the win column? We shall see.

Colorado Avalanche

The Avalanche finally addressed their netminder woes this past week, but what they have acquired remains to be seen. At a minimum, Scott Wedgewood must serve as a legitimate backup for the Avalanche, but what exactly does that mean? If you ask, it means spelling Georgiev and keeping the Avs competitive early in games. Here’s to hoping.

It’s no secret that the Avalanche must do a better job of coming out strong in the first period. Even more importantly, they need to keep the puck out of their net early—no more of this two-goal-on-three-shot business.

In the last three previews, I predicted a MacKinnon explosion, and in the previous three previews, I was wrong, so I’ll say this: MacKinnon is due.

Projected Lineup:

Artturi Lehkonen — Nathan MacKinnon — Mikko Rantanen
Nikolai Kovalenko — Casey Mittelstadt — Valeri Nichushkin
Joel Kiviranta — Ivan Ivan — Logan O’Connor
Nikita Prishchepov — Parker Kelly — Chris Wagner

Devon Toews — Cale Makar
Samuel Girard — Sam Malinski
Oliver Kylington — John Ludvig

Note: The Avalanche injury woes continue. They will be without Josh Manson, who is listed as week-to-week. The excellent news is Ross Colton traveled with the team, but we aren’t sure if he will return.

Buffalo Sabres

The Sabres are an interesting team because of the balance of their lineup. They have plenty of young, valuable talent and some veteran savvy both at the forward group and on the blue line. It didn’t take long for Bowen Byram to become a top pair guy on a team that doesn’t have Cale Makar and Devon Toews firmly at the helm. Good for him.

The other side of that deal was Casey Mittlestadt, who came out of the gates hot this season but seems to have cooled off quite a bit over the past month. His issues are the same as those of the entire Avalanche roster. He needs to start contributing to five-on-five scoring.

Projected Lineup:

Jason Zucker — Tage Thompson — Alex Tuch
JJ Peterka — Dylan Cozens — Zach Benson
Jiri Kulich — Ryan McLeod — Jack Quinn
Beck Malenstyn — Peyton Krebs — Nicolas Aube-Kubel

Rasmus Dahlin — Bowen Byram
Owen Power — Henri Jokiharju
Jacob Bryson — Connor Clifton

Goaltenders

The Avalanche will lean on Alexandar Georgiev as we await Scott Wedgewood’s debut. Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen is the confirmed starter for Buffalo.