Projected Lineup: Avalanche at Sabres

BUFFALO, N.Y.--The Colorado Avalanche will use the same lineup tonight against the Buffalo Sabres as it used in its last game at the Philadelphia Flyers on Saturday.
Philipp Grubauer will once again start in net for Colorado. He has been in the crease nine times in his career against Buffalo and sports a 5-1-2 record with a 1.15 goals-against average and .957 save percentage, including a 3-0 shutout on March 9, 2019 in Denver.

It is the first of two meetings between the Avalanche and Sabres this season, both of which will take place this month as Buffalo makes its trip to Denver on Feb. 26. Colorado won both matchups by a combined score of 9-1 last season, which included a 6-1 win at KeyBank Center on Oct. 11, 2018.
The Avs held an optional morning skate at KeyBank Center today with 10 skaters and one goaltender taking the ice.
Tonight's contest against the Sabres is the second outing of a five-game road trip for Colorado, which will also make stops at the Ottawa Senators, Columbus Blue Jackets and Minnesota Wild before returning to the Mile High City.
Below is the Avalanche's projected lineup based on the forward combinations and defensive pairings at practice on Monday. They are subject to change.
Forwards
92 Gabriel Landeskog - 29 Nathan MacKinnon - 96 Mikko Rantanen
13 Valeri Nichushkin - 91 Nazem Kadri - 95 Andre Burakovsky
11 Matt Calvert - 41 Pierre-Edouard Bellemare - 37 J.T. Compher
83 Matt Nieto - 17 Tyson Jost - 72 Joonas Donskoi
Defensemen
27 Ryan Graves - 8 Cale Makar
49 Samuel Girard - 6 Erik Johnson
16 Nikita Zadorov - 28 Ian Cole
Goaltenders
31 Philipp Grubauer
39 Pavel Francouz
Healthy Scratches: Mark Barberio, Vladislav Kamenev
Injury Report: Colin Wilson (lower body, out indefinitely)