Projected Lineup: Avalanche at Wild (Jan. 30, 2021)

The Colorado Avalanche will make a few changes to its lineup tonight when it opens a back-to-back set at the Minnesota Wild.
On defense, Conor Timmins will return to game action as Devon Toews will miss his first game of the season. Toews stayed in Denver after blocking a shot in Thursday's game against the San Jose Sharks and head coach Jared Bednar said it could be a long-term absence for Toews, but he is still being evaluated and more will be known in the coming days.
Timmins will be playing in his sixth game of the season, beginning the contest on a pairing with Ryan Graves. The other defensive duos are Samuel Girard and Cale Makar, and Bowen Byram and Erik Johnson, although Bednar noted that the pairings will be fluid throughout tonight's outing.

Among the forwards, Logan O'Connor will skate in his first contest of the year and will be on a line with Tyson Jost and Kiefer Sherwood. O'Connor has played in 21 NHL contests over the last two seasons and has recorded two goals. He enters the lineup as Pierre-Edouard Bellemare is out with a lower-body injury.
In net, Philipp Grubauer will make his eighth start of the season. He recorded his second shutout of the campaign on Thursday, making 21 saves in Colorado's 3-0 victory against the San Jose Sharks. His five wins and two shutouts so far this year are both tied for the most in the league.
Tonight's game is the first of four straight between the Avalanche and Wild, as the teams will conclude the back-to-back set tomorrow before traveling to Denver for matchups on Tuesday and Thursday.
The Avalanche and Wild have played on consecutive nights in the regular season on three occasions, but never both in the same building (all were home-and-home sets). They did play a back-to-back in one arena in the postseason: during the 2008 Western Conference Quarterfinals as Games 3-4 were played on consecutive nights in Denver (April 14-15, 2008).
Below is the Avalanche's projected lineup. All forward combinations and defensive pairings are subject to change.
Forwards
92 Gabriel Landeskog - 29 Nathan MacKinnon - 96 Mikko Rantanen
20 Brandon Saad - 91 Nazem Kadri - 95 Andre Burakovsky
13 Valeri Nichushkin - 37 J.T. Compher - 72 Joonas Donskoi
44 Kiefer Sherwood - 17 Tyson Jost - 25 Logan O'Connor
Defensemen
49 Samuel Girard - 8 Cale Makar
4 Bowen Byram - 6 Erik Johnson
27 Ryan Graves - 22 Conor Timmins
Goaltenders
31 Philipp Grubauer
32 Hunter Miska
Injury Report: Pierre-Edouard Bellemare (lower body), Matt Calvert (upper body), Pavel Francouz (lower body), Devon Toews (lower body)
Taxi Squad: Shane Bowers, Sheldon Dries, Jacob MacDonald, Greg Pateryn, Adam Werner