Colorado Avalanche Game Day: a chance to go up big in Vegas

Colorado Avalanche @ Vegas Golden Knights: ROUND 2, GAME 3
Time: 8:00 PM Mountain Time
Location: T-Mobile Arena
Broadcast/Streaming: NBCSN (national), CBC, SN, TVAS
Opponent SB Nation Site: Knights on Ice

After getting the job done at home, the Colorado Avalanche travel to Vegas to play the Golden Knights for a set of two games. Hopefully, after these two games, we don’t see them again until there’s a full crowd at Ball Arena in Round three.

The Avs have won in a blowout, as well as a close overtime game. They’ve been the better team and they’ve gotten the bounces. Focusing on the game plan and executing despite the Vegas crowds will be the key.

Colorado Avalanche

The Avs travelled yesterday and had their practice this morning. They worked on the power play among other things. Logan O’Connor has began skating with the team again. He’s not quite ready to go.

One change we might see to the lineup is on the fourth line. Alex Newhook and Sampo Ranta coming out for Kiefer Sherwood and Carl Soderberg. The two rookies were somewhat left out in the cold in Game 2 playing six and five minutes apiece as the Avs needed more reliable players in such a tight game. Soderberg won’t provide much offense, but he can take some of the defensive load off the top-nine.

Here’s the lines from last game, with Soderberg and Sherwood on the wings of PE Bellemare.

Forwards

Gabriel Landeskog - Nathan MacKinnon - Mikko Rantanen
Brandon Saad - Tyson Jost - Valeri Nichushkin
Andre Burakovsky - JT Compher - Joonas Donskoi
Carl Soderberg - Pierre-Edouard Bellemare - Kiefer Sherwood

Defense

Devon Toews - Cale Makar
Ryan Graves - Samuel Girard
Patrik Nemeth - Conor Timmins

Goalies

Philipp Grubauer
Devan Dubnyk

Vegas Golden Knights

The Golden Knights have a lot of game-time decisions heading into tonight as they battle injuries. Here is who skated this morning, along with the list of players who’s status for the game is up in the air.

Here are the lines for Game 3, with an asterisk on them as a lot of things are still unknown.

Forwards

Max Pacioretty - Chandler Stephenson - Mark Stone
Jonathan Marchessault - William Karlsson - Reilly Smith
Dylan Sikura - Nicolas Roy - Alex Tuch
William Carrier - Patrick Brown - Keegan Kolesar

Defense

Alec Martinez - Alex Pietrangelo
Nick Holden - Shea Theodore
Nic Hague - Zach Whitecloud

Goalies

Marc-Andre Fleury
Robin Lehner