Preseason Colorado Avalanche Game Day: Afternoon date in Minnesota

NHL Preseason hockey continues to roll on as the Colorado Avalanche travel north to St. Paul Minnesota to play the Minnesota Wild in an afternoon affair. The Avs fell flat in their first preseason game against the Vegas Golden Knights, losing 5-1 at home, so head coach Jared Bednar is expecting a much more competitive performance out of his boys today.

From NHL.com, Bednar stated that the group of players that didn’t play aginst Vegas will get the game today.

“I expect more out of our group tomorrow [Saturday] now, [they’ve had] a couple extra practices.” Bednar added. “If you look at the lineup that we’re playing and the guys that we have left here, they’re all pros. They are either going to be here or up the road in Loveland.”

Newly-acquired goaltender Philipp Grubauer will get the start, with other newbie Pavel Francouz most likely getting the second half of the game, similar to the way the Avs split the game on Wednesday between Semyon Varlamov and Spencer Martin. This will be Avs fans’ first look at the reigning Stanley Cup Champion in the burgundy and blue.

Expect the forward and defense rosters for this game to look something like this today. We will hopefully get line combos and pairings at the pregame skate.

Forwards

Tyson Jost, Alexander Kerfoot, Andrew Agozzino, Sheldon Dries, A.J. Greer, Ty Lewis, Cody Bass, Dominic Toninato, Colin Wilson, Igor Shvyrev, Vladislav Kamenev, Martin Kaut

Defense

Samuel Girard, Anton Lindholm, Mark Alt, Mason Geertsen, Nicolas Meloche, Ryan Graves

Update: per the team, you can expect these lines from Colorado tonight

Kerfoot-Jost-Kaut

Wilson-Kamenev-Agozzino

Lewis-Shvyrev-Dries

Greer-Toninato-Bass

Girard-Lindholm

Graves-Alt

Geertsen-Meloche

Grubauer

Francouz

As you can see, Jost, Kerfoot, Girard, Lindholm, and the rest of the rookies are going to be front and center today and getting big minutes. They will be in for a big test as the Wild have assignemd most of their regulars to this game, including Mikko Koivu, Zach Parise, Eric Staal, Nino Niederreiter, Matt Dumba, Jonas Brodin, Jared, Spurgeon, and Mikael Granlund.

The Wild