Preview: Avs streak into Minnesota for matchup with Wild

The six game win streak can continue on the road tonight!

We are just wiping the sleep out of our eyes from last night’s win over the Chicago Blackhawks and celebrating Nathan MacKinnon’s 1,000th career point. Still, we will have more history to witness tonight as the Avalanche travel to Minnesota for a matchup with the Wild.

Colorado Avalanche

It still feels like we are in the honeymoon phase of this rejuvenated roster, but it also looks like this sort of success is sustainable now that the Avalanche have bolstered their depth both on the backend and in the forward group. That’s not to say they will win every game, but they should be competitive night in and night out with good goaltending and scoring ability.

You might be reading that last paragraph and thinking, “What depth did we add on defense.” His name is Erik Johnson, and he goes by The Condor. When he was added, many saw it as just a solid to the veteran cup winner, but he performed well last night and brought back a sense of pride and togetherness to this group.

Projected Lineup:

Artturi Lehkonen — Nathan MacKinnon — Martin Necas
Jonathan Drouin — Brock Nelson — Valeri Nichushkin
Joel Kiviranta — Charlie Coyle — Ross Colton
Parker Kelly — Jack Drury — Logan O’Connor

Devon Toews — Cale Makar
Ryan Lindgren — Josh Manson
Samuel Girard — Sam Malinski

Mackenzie Blackwood

Minnesota Wild

The Wild are winless in their last two and are still without two of their best players, Kirill Kaprizov & Joel Eriksson Ek, heading into tonight’s division rivalry night, but they are still plenty capable. The Avalanche must separate themselves from the Wild, who are behind them in the first wild-card position with 76 points (Avalanche – 80).

Projected Lineup:

Matt Boldy — Marco Rossi — Vinnie Hinostroza
Marcus Johansson — Frederick Gaudreau — Mats Zuccarello
Marcus Foligno — Ryan Hartman – –Gustav Nyquist
Yakov Trenin — Devin Shore — Justin Brazeau

Jacob Middleton — Brock Faber
Declan Chisholm — Jared Spurgeon
Jon Merrill — Zach Bogosian

Filip Gustavsson