Preview: Sunday showdown with the Oilers

Another day, another crucial Western Conference matchup.

This time, the Colorado Avalanche play host to the Edmonton Oilers. Both teams continue to race for playoff positioning and even make the show in the first place. For one of these teams, it’s going a lot better than the other.

Colorado Avalanche

The Avs would be the better team in positioning between these two. This is thanks to a run of recent results going in their favor. The most recent of these results came just about 24 hours ago, as Colorado won 4-1 away to the St. Louis Blues.

Bowen Byram was the star last game with two goals just a few games after his own return from injury. Cale Makar also returned, took a punch to the head late on, but was able to return and finish it out. Hopefully, he is good to go for today as well.

Meanwhile, Josh Manson sat out the last game as trainers didn’t want him playing in back-to-back games with his return from injury. But, he is in against the Oilers as this strong back-line looks to help the Avs win their third straight game and get within two points of the Winnipeg Jets.

Projected Lines

Artturi Lehkonen (62) - Nathan MacKinnon (29) - Valeri Nichushkin (13)
Evan Rodrigues (9) - J.T. Compher (37) - Mikko Rantanen (96)
Andrew Cogliano (11) - Alex Newhook (18) - Logan O’Connor (25)
Matt Nieto (83) - Ben Meyers (59) - Denis Malgin (81)

Cale Makar (8) - Devon Toews (7)
Sam Girard (49) - Josh Manson (42)
Bowen Byram (4) - Andreas Englund (88)

Edmonton Oilers

The Oilers are facing the Avs on the second half of another back-to-back. Again, just like others recently against the Avs, they come in rested and ready to go.

Their last game came against the 5-4 shootout loss to the New York Rangers on Friday night at home. It was just the most recent stretch of games Edmonton has struggled in, as it was their third straight loss.

Connor McDavid can’t do it all for the Oilers, despite just recently recorded his 100th point of the season. We’ve seen this time and time again; his team currently sits in the first wild-card spot with 67 points three points behind the Seattle Kraken. They need points more than ever as they look to stay in contention in the Pacific Division and playoff race as a whole.

Projected Lines

Ryan Nugent-Hopkins (93) - Connor McDavid (97) - Zach Hyman (18)
Evander Kane (91) - Leon Draisaitl (29) - Kailer Yamamoto (56)
Mattias Yanmark (26) - Ryan McLeod (71) - Warren Foegele (37)
Derek Ryan (10) - Jesse Puljujarvi (13)

Darnell Nurse (25) - Cody Ceci (5)
Brett Kulak (27) - Tyson Barrie (22)
Philip Broberg (86) - Evan Bouchard (2)

Goaltenders

With Justus Annunen playing yesterday, we should get Alexandar Georgiev in net for the Avs. Meanwhile, the Oilers have had better results with Jack Campbell recently but we could also see Stuart Skinner also getting the start. We will have to see once the lineups are released.