Avalanche head coach Jared Bednar did not give any lineup details in his pregame media availability, including his starting netminder. However, Michael Hutchinson is likely to start in net for a second-straight contest after it was determined that Pavel Francouz was unfit to play prior to Game 5.
Hutchinson stopped 31-of-34 shots on Monday in the his first career postseason start. It was his second-ever win and start with Colorado since he was acquired on Feb. 24 at the trade deadline from the Toronto Maple Leafs.
Matt Calvert, Joonas Donskoi, Philipp Grubauer and Erik Johnson are out with injuries for Colorado and are doubtful to play. Bednar did say that Calvert took part in today's optional morning skate, but he didn't tip his hand on if the forward will be available to play.
Below is the Avalanche's projected lineup for tonight's contest based on the forward combinations and defensive pairings at the start of Monday's Game 5. They are subject to change.
Forwards
95 Andre Burakovsky - 29 Nathan MacKinnon - 96 Mikko Rantanen
92 Gabriel Landeskog - 91 Nazem Kadri - 13 Valeri Nichushkin
17 Tyson Jost - 37 J.T. Compher - 90 Vladislav Namestnikov
83 Matt Nieto - 41 Pierre-Edouard Bellemare - 25 Logan O'Connor
Defensemen
27 Ryan Graves - 8 Cale Makar
16 Nikita Zadorov - 28 Ian Cole
49 Samuel Girard - 20 Conor Timmins
Goaltenders
35 Michael Hutchinson
32 Hunter Miska
Dallas Stars interim head coach Rick Bowness declined to give any details of his lineup during his pre-game press conference this morning.
The Stars used goaltenders Ben Bishop and Anton Khudobin in Monday's contest, with Bishop starting and making 15-of-19 saves in his first game since Aug. 13. Khudobin entered the outing in relief in the first period and stopped 20-of-22 shots faced.
Defenseman Stephen Johns remains unfit to play.
Below is Dallas' projected lineup for this evening based on the start of Monday's contest.
Forwards
14 Jamie Benn - 91 Tyler Seguin - 47 Alexander Radulov
13 Mattias Janmark - 16 Joe Pavelski - 34 Denis Gurianov
18 Jason Dickinson - 24 Roope Hintz - 10 Corey Perry
11 Andrew Cogliano - 12 Radek Faksa - 15 Blake Comeau
Defensemen
23 Esa Lindell - 3 John Klingberg
2 Jamie Oleksiak - 4 Miro Heiskanen
5 Andrej Sekera - 42 Taylor Fedun
Goaltenders
30 Ben Bishop OR 35 Anton Khudobin
