Colorado Avalanche Gameday: Time to recover

The Colorado Avalanche are in the second leg of their back-to-back. Tonight, it’s against the Montreal Canadiens after a disastrous 8-3 defeat last night against the Toronto Maple Leafs

Colorado Avalanche

The Avs need to rebound in the worst kind of way. They were completely unprepared for the skill and talent the Leafs have. With the late loss of Darcy Kuemper, it didn’t help to throw Jonas Johansson in on late notice with a lackluster defense ahead of him. That combination is where it all fell apart for the Avs.

One of the few positives from last night was the return of Nathan MacKinnon from injury. He recorded two assists on the three goals from last night. The return of MacKinnon is positive and he will look to get better tonight.

Nazem Kadri got himself on the scoresheet as well, scoring two goals including his 200th career goal against his former side. The two center-men will look to bring their side back into the win column.

Gabriel Landeskog (92) - Nathan MacKinnon (29) - Mikko Rantanen (96)

Val Nichushkin (13) - Nazem Kadri (91) - Andre Burakovsky (95)

Nicolas Aube-Kubel (16) - Alex Newhook (18) - Logan O’Connor (25)

Darren Helm (43) - Tyson Jost (17) - Jayson Megna (12)

Devon Toews (7) - Cale Makar (8)

Bowen Byram (4) - Sam Girard (49)

Jack Johnson (3) - Erik Johnson (6)

Montreal Canadiens

The Canadiens are having a rough time in the league. Coming off of a run to the Stanley Cup Final last season, this year has proven that last year was a fluke. The loss of Shea Weber and Carey Price has had the team lose some veteran leadership.

The lack of performances soon followed. Just last week, General Manager Marc Bergevin was fired from the team, looking for a new identity. The off-ice issues have had some effect on ice, as the team sits on a 6-16-2 record, coming off of a 2-1 loss at home to the Vancouver Canucks.

It was just announced today that they would be without Sami Niku and Brendan Gallagher due to COVID-19 protocols, so the lineup for them will look a little different than usual tonight.

Tyler Tofolli (73) - Christian Dvorak (28) - Josh Anderson (17)

Atturi Lehkonen (62) - Nick Suzuki (14) - Jake Evans (71)

Jonathan Drouin (92) - Ryan Poehling (25) - Joel Armia (40)

Michael Pezzetta (55) - Mathieu Perrault (85) - Cole Caufield (22)

Ben Chariot (8) - David Savard (58)

Brett Kulak (77) - Jeff Petry (26)

Alexander Romanov (27) - Chris Wideman (20)

Goaltending

It’s unknown who will be goaltending for the Avs tonight. It’s been confirmed that Justus Annunen won’t start; Kuemper may be ready to go but time will tell on that. In the meantime, we will predict that Johanssen gets the call again to get back on track. For the Canadiens, it will be Jake Allen in net to get Montreal’s seventh win of the season.