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No morning skate took place for the Colorado Avalanche so there’s always a surprise in store as Bowen Byram will be replaced with Brad Hunt due to an illness. Pavel Francouz is also expected to play against the Anaheim Ducks tomorrow night.
Just caught up with #Avs Jared Bednar before tonight’s road tilt at the Kings. Bo Byram will miss tonight’s game with an illness. Alexandar Georgiev starts in net.
— Kyle Fredrickson (@kylefredrickson) April 9, 2023
Colorado Avalanche
As always the key storyline for the defending champions are the injuries and which players will be available for the game. This lineup is expected the same barring any surprises as Cale Makar and Darren Helm continue to nurse injuries and none of the other wounded are expected back.
On a much more positive note, milestone watch continues with Mikko Rantanen now only needing two points to reach 100 and Nathan MacKinnon needs three goals to hit 40 for the second time in his career.
Projected Lineup:
Evan Rodrigues — Nathan MacKinnon — Mikko Rantanen
Denis Malgin — J.T. Compher — Val Nichushkin
Andrew Cogliano — Lars Eller — Logan O’Connor
Ben Meyers — Alex Newhook — Matt Nieto
Samuel Girard — Devon Toews
Jack Johnson — Erik Johnson
Kurtis MacDermid — Brad Hunt
LA Kings
Following their aforementioned loss the Kings might be more willing to shake things up heading into this game but they too are expected to play with the same healthy players. Anze Kopitar is quietly having a strong season at 35-years of age and the best since 2017-18 when he was nominated for the Hart Trophy with MacKinnon.
Projected Lineup:
Quinton Byfield - Anze Kopitar - Adrian Kempe
Trevor Moore - Phillip Danault - Viktor Arvidsson
Alex Iafallo - Blake Lizotte - Arthur Kaliyev
Carl Grundstrom - Rasmus Kupari - Zack MacEwen
Vladislav Gavrikov - Drew Doughty
Sean Durzi - Matt Roy
Tobias Bjornfot - Sean Walker
Goaltenders
Going into the start of a back-to-back it’s a pretty safe bet that Alexandar Georgiev will get the start in this contest and leave the Anaheim Ducks tilt tomorrow night for one of the backup goaltenders. Pavel Francouz might even be ready to make an appearance by then but for now Georgie keeps the net.
For their part the Kings have been pretty consistently alternating goaltenders Joonas Korpisalo and Phoenix Copley. With Korpisalo taking the loss in their last outing the tea leaves seem to point to Copley’s turn in net.
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