Colorado Avalanche Gameday: Rebounding in Las Vegas

Less than 24 hours after a disappointing loss to the Dallas Stars, the Colorado Avalanche are back at it again for the first of two back-to-back series visiting the Vegas Golden Knights. The Avs will do the same in 10 days time but look to focus tonight on rebounding in the Sin City.

While history ended for the Avs last night, they look to start history once again and go streaking once again. It will be no easy task coming off that hard loss and against a good Golden Knights side that is only going to get better.

Colorado Avalanche

Despite falling 4-1 to the Stars last night, it wasn’t so much a bad game for the Avs. It was more so a dominant performance from Jake Oettinger to hold the Avs steady. It wasn’t perfect though for the Avs, as the defense and goaltending was somewhat lackluster.

A bright spot from the game was Nathan MacKinnon’s first goal back from injury with his nice wrist shot. He is still looking to get back on track and get into a groove as he’s been consistently in-and-out of the lineup and could start that run tonight.

His All-Star teammates Nazem Kadri and Cale Makar return to Las Vegas for the first time since the All-Star weekend a couple weekends ago. They will look to return to the win column after their ASG loss along with the Avs loss last night.

Forwards

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

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

Logan O’Connor (25) - Alex Newhook (18) - J.T. Compher (37)

Darren Helm (43) - Tyson Jost (17) - Nicolas Aube-Kubel (16)

Defenders

Devon Toews (7) - Cale Makar (8)

Jack Johnson (3) - Samuel Girard (49)

Kurtis MacDermid (56) - Erik Johnson (6)

Las Vegas Golden Knights

The Golden Knights have not played for an entire week and come in real rested against the Avs. They did get blown out by the Calgary Flames 6-0 a week ago though. They should have an advantage to have said rest, but they are far from healthy and having a full squad.

The Knights are without Mark Stone, Alec Martinez, Zach Whitecloud or Robin Lehner. With Stone and Martinez being placed on LTIR, it opens up a lot of cap space for Vegas. This just so happens to conveniently fall perfectly in place for the season & Golden Knights debut of Jack Eichel.

All eyes will be on Eichel and the Golden Knights to see what he has to offer. They won the race for the star forward’s signature in a significant trade with the Buffalo Sabres. With the Knights already leading the race in the Pacific Division, we will get a glimpse tonight of Eichel trying to extend the division lead and gain some momentum heading into the postseason.

Forwards

Max Pacioretty (67) - Jack Eichel (9) - Evgenii Dadonov (63)

Mattias Janmark (26) - William Karlsson (71) - Reilly Smith (19)

Johnathan Marchessault (81) - Chandler Stephenson (20) - Nicolas Roy (10)

Will Carrier (28) - Brett Howden (21) - Nolan Patrick (41)

Defenders

Nicolas Hague (14) - Alex Pietrangelo (7)

Brayden McNabb (3) - Shea Theodore (27)

Ben Hutton (17) - Dylan Coghlan (52)

Goaltending

With Pavel Francouz getting the start last night, it will be Darcy Kuemper getting the nod to start tonight. For Vegas, Lehner won’t be available so it will be second-string Laurent Brossoit starting at T-Mobile Arena.