Colorado Avalanche Game Day: Devan Dubnyk likely to debut against Blues

Tonight the St. Louis Blues will host the Colorado Avalanche for the first time this season. These teams will be playing each other in four of their next six contests.

COLORADO AVALANCHE

The Avalanche beat the Arizona Coyotes 4-2 on Monday night despite the Yotes best effort. Tonight’s game will be the second contest in a row with a player for Colorado testing positive for COVID-19 and morning skate was cancelled. Many of the players received their vaccine after the Anaheim game and Jared Bednar mentioned the bulk of the squad is feeling unwell. Prepare for another possible postponement or odd lineup!

This morning, Jared Bednar expressed to Marc Moser of Altitude Radio that Carl Soderberg will return to the line-up. He also played at the possibility of Devan Dubnyk getting his first start in an Avalanche sweater. Yesterday, Joonas Johansson was assigned to the taxi squad and Bednar has expressed a desire to rest Philipp Grubauer as the playoffs grow nearer.

FORWARDS

Gabriel Landeskog - Nathan MacKinnon - Mikko Rantanen

Brandon Saad - Nazem Kadri - Andre Burakovsky

Valeri Nichushkin - Carl Soderberg - Joonas Donskoi

Tyson Jost - Pierre Edouard Bellemare - J.T. Compher

DEFENDERS

Samuel Girard - Devon Toews

Ryan Graves - Cale Makar

Kyle Burroughs - (Connor Timmins/Dan Renouf)

NOTE: Keaton Middleton has been sent back down to the Colorado Eagles.

ST. LOUIS BLUES

The Blues are doing their best to make a push for the fourth and final spot in the Honda West Division. Arizona, and St. Louis are vying for that position in the division with the Blues ahead of the Coyotes by just one point with two games in hand.

The Blues are looking to extend their three game winning streak to four having just beat the Minnesota Wild 3-2 last Saturday. St. Louis should be well rested after having their April 12th game against the Wild postponed due to COVID protocol.

FORWARDS

Samuel Blais - Ryan O’Reilly - David Perron

Jaden Schwartz - Brayden Schenn - Vladmir Tarasenko

Zach Sanford - Tyler Bozak - Robert Thomas

Kyle Clifford - Ivan Barbashev - Jordan Kyrou

DEFENDERS

Torey Krug - Justin Faulk

Marco Scandella - Vince Dunn

Jake Walman - Colton Parayko

GOALTENDING

As I mentioned earlier, Jared Bednar hinted at newly acquired Devan Dubnyk getting his first start as a Colorado Avalanche tonight. Donning the number forty, Dubnyk has struggled thus far this season behind a lesser team in San Jose. Hopefully, he can improve on his 3.18 GAA and .898 SV%.

This game is undoubtedly a bigger one for the St. Louis Blues, and with that, they will likely start Jordan Binnington. Binnington comes in with a 2.65 AAV and a .910 SV%. He has struggled against the Avalanche this season, with a record of 1-2. He’s allowed seven goals in the last two games against the Avalanche and had to be pulled after giving up four in a single period back in January.