Avalanche Prepare For Sidney Crosby's Penguins for First Time This Season
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Coming off their back-to-back home-and-home series against the Dallas Stars, which saw both teams take a win and a loss, they have a chance to get back on the winning side against the Pittsburgh Penguins, who have been inconsistent at the start of the season.
While the Penguins have scored 24 goals this season, they’ve also allowed 21, with their last game ending in a 5-3 loss to the Chicago Blackhawks. A sign for the Avalanche that, while there's no joke about Sidney Crosby leading the offense and helping it put up 3.43 goals per game, their defense and goaltending can be exposed.
The lineup will consist of another run of 11 forwards and 7 defensemen, with Nicolas Roy now out of the lineup with a lower-body injury. Logan O’Connor is out on personal leave, and Zachary L’Heureux is dealing with an upper-body injury.
Gavin Brindley was called up for the Stars game, and with Cale Makar back in the lineup, O’Connor was placed on long-term injured reserve to make room for the moves.
They need to be careful, as both Roy and L’Heureux are listed as day-to-day. Keeping them out of the lineup for now could change their status to week-to-week if they were to be played today, and something could tweak and worsen the situation. O’Connor was at practice this morning, but since he's on LTIR, he is not eligible to return until next Friday, which meets the criteria of either 10 minimum games or 24 days.
A New Change In Scenery
This game also marks a new “era” for the Avalanche, as it will be their first game with Brett McLean as their assistant coach, replacing Dave Hakstol, who left for Arizona State in the NCAA.
McLean takes over the power play, a key topic that was heavily criticized last season and continues to show signs of lackluster success this season despite the talent. While it might be some time before we see any drastic change, today's game could be the first sign of how things will be run.
One thing already shown is that Jaaden Schwartz has been promoted to the top power-play unit, and, in the process, Martin Necas has been dropped to the second unit, as we saw in the second game against the Stars.
The hope is that, with the change in McLean, he can bring a fresh change to the system, helping create better-quality chances while utilizing this talent on the team. Though it will be tougher to show that, as the Penguins hold an 89.5% penalty-kill percentage through their first seven games.
It will also be the first time Samuel Girard plays at Ball Arena since being traded to the Penguins. The Penguins did play last March, but he was injured and did not play.
Projected Avalanche Lines (Subject to Change)
Artturi Lehkonen — Nathan MacKinnon — Martin Necas
Gabriel Landeskog — Brock Nelson — Nazem Kadri
Jaden Schwartz — Fedor Svechkov — T.J. Hughes
Parker Kelly — Gavin Brindley
Devon Toews — Cale Makar
Brett Kulak — Sam Malinski
Josh Manson — Brent Burns
Noah Juulsen
Mackenzie Blackwood
Scott Wedgewood
Projected Starters (Subject to Change)
- Confirmed: Mackenzie Blackwood (COL)
- Confirmed: Arturs Silovs (PIT)
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Stefano Rubino is a sports journalist based outside Toronto, Canada, and a hockey writer covering multiple teams for The Hockey News, as well as the Colorado Avalanche and Detroit Red Wings for Sports Illustrated. When he is not watching last night's highlights or minor league games, or writing game notes, you can find him listening to music while he works out or playing video games.