Colorado Avalanche Game Day: Let’s go streaking!

After losing five straight, the Colorado Avalanche are now rolling in the right direction. They’ve won two in a row and will look to push the streak to three as against a depleted Washington Capitals team.

A weakened Eastern Conference opponent at home before heading out west for three games; these are the games the Avalanche need to win if they hope to climb back up the Central Division standings.

A win tonight would pull the Avalanche back up into a tie with Winnipeg for third in the division.

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Colorado Avalanche

The Avalanche have come back to life lately. The top line is scoring again and their being supplemented by some great play from Alex Kerfoot and Tyson Jost.

With Nikita Zadorov’s ice time dropping each game - and a benching Wednesday night - it worth watching whether or not Big Z can bounce back and turn his play around. The Avs could really use the Zadorov we saw at the end of last season.

***Update*** Big Z is a healthy scratch tonight

J.T. Compher is skating regularly now, but he still hasn’t been cleared for contact so it could still be a week or so before we see him in the lineup.

Forwards

Gabriel Landeskog - Nathan MacKinnon - Mikko Rantanen

Tyson Jost - Alexander Kerfoot - Colin Wilson

Sheldon Dries - Carl Soderberg - Matt Calvert

Sven Andrighetto - Vladislav Kamenev - Gabriel Bourque

Defense

Samuel Girard - Erik Johnson

Ian Cole - Tyson Barrie

Patrik Nemeth - Mark Barberio

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Washington Capitals

After beating the Minnesota Wild to start their road trip, the Capitals dropped a close game in Winnipeg Wednesday night.

Tom Wilson is back in the lineup after having his suspension reduced, but the team is now likely without stars T.J. Oshie, Evgeny Kuznetsov and Braden Holtby.

We don’t have injury updates yet, but it’s likely both Oshie and Kuznetsov will be missing from the lineup tonight due to head injuries.

We should have an update by noon, according to Isabelle Khurshudyan of the Washington Post.

Forwards

We don’t know

yet! But it’s

likely their top-9

looks pretty ugly.

Defense

Dmitry Orlov - John Carlson

Michal Kempny - Matt Niskanen

Christian Djoos - Madison Bowey

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Starting Goalies

Philipp Grubauer is going to get the call between the pipes to face his former team. Grubauer comes into the game with a 3-1-1 record and .893 sv%. He’ll be looking to bounce back after giving up seven goals in his last outing against Vancouver.

After getting hurt earlier in the week, it looks like Braden Holtby isn’t going to be available tonight. Former first overall pick Ilya Samsonov is on his way to join the Capitals in Denver, but it is likely to be Phoenix Copley in net for Washington tonight.

Copley is 3-2-1 on the season with a .905 sv%.