Avalanche at Panthers preview

AVALANCHE (12-13-2) at PANTHERS (11-13-4)
7 p.m. ET; FS-F, ALT, NHL.TV

Barkov is out because of an upper-body injury he sustained in the second period of a 6-4 victory against the Winnipeg Jets on Thursday. Coach Bob Boughner said he was hoping Barkov would be back against the Detroit Red Wings on Monday or against the Chicago Blackhawks on Tuesday.
Vincent Trocheck will take Barkov's place on the top line with Jonathan Huberdeau and Nick Bjugstad.
Colorado, which has lost four in a row (0-4-0), will be playing the second game of a four-game road trip that began with a 5-2 loss against the Tampa Bay Lightning on Thursday.
This is the first of two games in six days between the Avalanche and Panthers, who will play at Pepsi Center on Thursday.

Players to watch

Avalanche forward Gabriel Landeskog had a goal Thursday in his return after serving a four-game suspension.
Huberdeau has seven points (one goal, six assists) in the past five games. He had three assists against the Jets on Thursday to give him 151 in the NHL, moving him past Jay Bouwmeester for ninth place all-time for the Panthers.

They said it

"We need to win this game. We've got to put that together for 60 minutes, not just the competitiveness since I know our guys are trying and working hard but the attention to the detail and playing our game." -- Avalanche coach Jared Bednar
"Different guys are getting different opportunities, and we're asking guys to step up in a big way tonight." -- Panthers coach Bob Boughner

Avalanche projected lineup

Gabriel Landeskog -- Nathan MacKinnon -- Mikko Rantanen
Tyson Jost -- Alex Kerfoot -- J.T. Compher
Matt Nieto -- Carl Soderberg -- Blake Comeau
Sven Andrighetto -- Colin Wilson
Nikita Zadorov -- Erik Johnson
Patrik Nemeth -- Tyson Barrie
Samuel Girard -- Mark Barberio
Anton Lindholm
Semyon Varlamov
Jonathan Bernier
Scratched: Duncan Siemens, Nail Yakupov, Gabriel Bourque
Injured:Vladislav Kamenev (arm)

Panthers projected lineup

Jonathan Huberdeau -- Vincent Trocheck -- Nick Bjugstad
Jamie McGinn -- Jared McCann --
Denis Malgin
Dryden Hunt -- Colton Sceviour -- Radim Vrbata
Micheal Haley -- Derek MacKenzie -- Connor Brickley
Keith Yandle -- Aaron Ekblad
Mike Matheson -- Mark Pysyk
Ian McCoshen -- Alexander Petrovic
James Reimer
Harri Sateri
Scratched: MacKenzie Weegar
Injured:Aleksander Barkov (upper body), Roberto Luongo (lower body), Evgenii Dadonov (upper body)

Status report

The Avalanche will go with 11 forwards and seven defensemen, as they did against the Lightning on Thursday. … Sceviour will move from right wing to center, where he played several shifts against the Jets after Barkov left the game.

Stat pack

Johnson will play his 400th game with the Avalanche. He will be the third defenseman to play that many games for them, joining Adam Foote (760) and John-Michael Liles (523). … The Panthers were 4-for-8 on the power play the past two games after going 2-for-23 the previous nine games.