Goaltender Hunter Miska is expected to get the start between the pipes after Philipp Grubauer made 26 saves on Friday to pick up his 12th win of the year. Miska has played in three contests this campaign and has a 1-1-1 record with an .883 save percentage.
The Avs could have veteran forward Matt Calvert (upper body) return to the lineup for the contest after missing five games with his ailment. Calvert has played in nine contests so far this season and participated in Friday's pregame skate in a red, non-contact jersey.
Head coach Jared Bednar said after that practice that Calvert might be an option to play "possibly as early as [Saturday]." If Calver is able to suit up, he is likely to replace Kiefer Sherwood in the lineup. Sherwood dressed on Friday after Nathan MacKinnon missed the game with an upper-body injury.
MacKinnon took part in the team's morning skate on Friday, but it was determined afterward that the forward wouldn't be able to play. He was hurt midway through the third period of the Avalanche's outing on Wednesday in San Jose after Joachim Blichfeld delivered an illegal check to the head that resulted in the Sharks forward receiving a two-game suspension from the league.
"In the afternoon he came down and wasn't feeling good, so the protocol says you can't play and we're not going to put him out there and risk him getting hurt or making it worse," Bednar said of MacKinnon after yesterday's contest. "So he was out and I don't know what that means as far as tomorrow or the next day, but I assuming he's going to miss a couple games here."
Tonight is the fourth of eight meetings and the second of four at Ball Arena this year between Colorado and Anaheim. The Avs have a 2-1-0 mark against the Ducks so far in the campaign.
Below is the Avalanche's projected lineup based on the forward combinations and defensive pairings at the start of Friday's outing. They are subject to change.
Forwards
92 Gabriel Landeskog - 91 Nazem Kadri - 96 Mikko Rantanen
20 Brandoon Saad - 17 Tyson Jost - 95 Andre Burakovsky
13 Valeri Nichushkin - 37 J.T. Compher - 72 Joonas Donskoi
11 Matt Calvert and/or 44 Kiefer Sherwood - 41 Pierre-Edouard Bellemare - 25 Logan O'Connor
Defensemen
27 Ryan Graves - 7 Devon Toews
34 Jacob MacDonald - 49 Samuel Girard
2 Dan Renouf - 22 Conor Timmins
Goaltenders
32 Hunter Miska
31 Philipp Grubauer
Taxi Squad: Peyton Jones
Injury Report:Bowen Byram (upper body), Pavel Francouz (lower body), Dennis Gilbert (upper body), Erik Johnson (upper body), Nathan MacKinnon (upper body), Cale Makar (upper body)
