Colorado Avalanche Gameday: The road trip starts with the Jets

The Colorado Avalanche and Winnipeg Jets play tonight at the Canada Life Centre in their second meeting of the season. Both are among the best Western teams, with almost identical records. Winnipeg stole the OT point the last time these two teams collided in Colorado.

Colorado Avalanche

The Avalanche have been riding the wave of an injury bug but have done so gracefully. Some young players have contributed, and Colorado’s stars have been just as dominant as ever.

A healthy Avalanche squad, or at least more healthy, doesn’t feel that far away. Jared Bednar told Altitude Sports Radio that Bo Byram, Darren Helm, and Valeri Nichushkin would stay home to skate as the Avalanche head east. December 7th against the Boston Bruins might be the day we see one or two of those guys return. Fingers crossed.

Projected Lineup:

Artturi Lehkonen — Nathan MacKinnon — Mikko Rantanen
Andrew Cogliano — J.T. Compher — Logan O’Connor
Alex Galchenyuk — Alex Newhook — Jean-Luc Foudy
Dryden Hunt — Jayson Megna — Anton Blidh

Devon Toews — Cale Makar
Jacob MacDonald — Josh Manson
Samuel Girard — Erik Johnson

Note: We will see the Colorado Avalanche debut for both Jean-Luc Foudy and Alex Galchenyuk. Galchenyuk is the latest installment of Avalanche reclamation projects. Hopefully, it works out.

Winnipeg Jets

The Jets are fresh off a 7-2 route against the Chicago Blackhawks and are enjoying a two-game win streak. Josh Morrissey has been a massive part of the success the Jets have found so far this season. He had three more helpers in the sweeping defeat of the Blackhawks. Do the Jets have enough to overthrow the Avalanche in the Central Division?

Projected Lineup:

Cole Perfetti — Mark Scheifele — Blake Wheeler
Kyle Connor — Pierre-Luc Dubois — Morgan Barron
Axel Jonsson-Fjallby — Adam Lowry — Saku Maenalanen
Jansen Harkins — Dominic Toninato — Michael Eyssimont

Josh Morrissey — Dylan Demelo
Brenden Dillon — Neal Pionk
Dylan Samberg — Nate Schmidt

Note: Nikolaj Ehlers, Logan Stanley, and Mason Appleton are all on Injured reserve, with David Gustafsson listed as day-to-day.

Goaltending

Alexandar Georgiev will be in the net for the Avalanche tonight. I say this in every pregame this season, but Georgiev’s early success has been a sight for sore eyes. It truly feels like he is an upgrade on Darcy Kuemper, no disrespect.

Connor Hellebuyck is the likely starter for the Jets in this Central Division showdown. The 6’4” goaltender is vital to this budding Winnipeg squad that hopes to make a deep cup run.