Colorado Avalanche Gameday: The regulars get their shot

The Avs play a second game of a back to back at home in Ball Arena. Tonight’s opponent is the second and final preseason match-up against the Vegas Golden Knights, before they go at it for real on October 26th.

Colorado Avalanche

The Avs are coming off a 3-1 defeat in Minneapolis last night. While disappointing, the Avs did play more of their rookie class and AHL players while the Minnesota Wild played a majority of their NHL regulars.

Tonight sees the return of Nathan MacKinnon and Mikko Rantanen to the lineup too. Avs fans should be thrilled that these two names are making their first appearance of the 2021/22 season and look to get off to a good start tonight.

Despite the recent cuts made by the Avs, there are still some prominent rookie names in the roster tonight. This includes Sampo Ranta, Justin Barron, Jayson Megna and Shane Bowers. Something of note tonight is that there’s no Darcy Kuemper tonight after playing all of last night’s game.

Vegas Golden Knights

Vegas is returning off the back of a stomping to the Los Angeles Kings 4-0 on Friday. Vegas has played one more game than the Avs holding an even .500 record at 2-2, looking to get above .500 against the team they knocked out in the playoffs last season.

Vegas has a good mix of NHL regulars and rookies in their lineup tonight. This includes a start for goaltender Logan Thompson looking to shut down the big names of the Avs.

Vegas will look to get ahead of the Avs’s big names early and shut them down. With a win tonight, Vegas would feel very confident against the Avs, their biggest challenge to the top spot in the Western Conference this season.

Here are the rosters for each side tonight, as provided by Conor McGahey.