Preview: Pride night against the Kraken

Sunday night hockey is on the cards as the Colorado Avalanche face off against the Seattle Kraken. The Avs are playing on the second leg of another back-to-back as they played in Dallas yesterday.

The Avs and Kraken both remain heavily in the running for playoff seeding needing points for their respective races. While not division rivals, this has all the makings of a four-point game simply because of how close they all are in the standings.

Colorado Avalanche

As mentioned earlier, the Avs were in Dallas Saturday afternoon. However, their trip was not good at all as they fell 7-3 to the Central Division leaders.

While Cale Makar returned to the lineup, the story of the season continues. One player returned, while the Avs lost two more. Those two were Valeri Nichushkin and Josh Manson. With Manson out for some time, he will not be available tonight.

However, Ben Meyers was not called back up from the Eagles after yesterday’s transaction. Kurtis MacDermid is also supposedly available as he traveled to Dallas yesterday with the team. Which of the three will play tonight as the Avs look to get back to winning ways?

Projected Lines

Artturi Lehkonen (62) - Nathan MacKinnon (29) - Valeri Nichushkin (13)
Alex Newhook (18) - J.T. Compher (37) - Mikko Rantanen (96)
Andrew Cogliano (11) - Lars Eller (20) - Logan O’Connor (25)
Matt Nieto (83) - Evan Rodrigues (9) - Denis Malgin (81)

Devon Toews (7) - Cale Makar (8)
Bowen Byram (4) - Sam Girard (49)
Jack Johnson (3) - Brad Hunt (17)

Seattle Kraken

Seattle is coming off a 4-2 win on the road over the struggling Columbus Blue Jackets. Their win was the most recent on what is a current three-game winning streak for them.

Seattle has been a cinderella story all season long as they’ve been in the hunt for the playoffs all season long. They currently sit third in the Pacific Division just four points behind the leading Vegas Golden Knights and Los Angeles Kings.

But, they have the Edmonton Oilers breathing down their neck in the wild card spot. Therefore, the Kraken is in a precarious situation as they look to get any points they can to keep their place in a tight Western Conference.

Projected Lines

Jared McCann (19) - Matty Beniers (10) - Jordan Eberle (7)
Jaden Schwartz (17) - Alexander Wennberg (21) - Oliver Bjorkstrand (22)
Eeli Tolvanen (20) - Yanni Gourde (37) - Ryan Donato (9)
Brandon Tanev (13) - Morgan Geekie (67) - Daniel Sprong (91)

Vince Dunn (29) - Adam Larsson (6)
Jamie Oleksiak (24) - William Borgen (3)
Carson Soucy (28) - Justin Schultz (4)

Goaltenders

Alexandar Georgiev should get the start despite being pulled in yesterday’s defeat. The extra rest will help him and likely give him the nod over Keith Kinkaid. Meanwhile, Philipp Grubauer has been the unanimous starter as of late for Seattle so expect him to hold the crease.