Open Thread: Colorado Avalanche vs. Vegas Golden Knights (8:00 p.m. MT)

After completing their latest road trip, the Colorado Avalanche return home for a game against the Vegas Golden Knights. This will be the second of three meetings between these two teams, with Vegas winning the first with a final score of 8-4.

Colorado avalanche

After ending its last road trip on a sour note with an 8-2 loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning, Colorado returns to Denver to face the Vegas Golden Knights. Despite the poor end to their road trip, the Avs won three of their four road games and had a successful road trip overall.

On a somewhat negative note, it was announced this morning that Jonathan Drouin will be out every week due to injury after scoring two goals against the Florida Panthers last weekend.

On a slightly more positive note, it looks like we’ll see another NHL debut for the Avs tonight as Chase Bradley was recalled ahead of today’s game along with Ivan Ivan and Nikolai Kovalenko. You do need guys to show up every night, and this game is no exception, especially with Drouin once again not in the lineup.

Planned lineup

Artturi Lehkonen – Nathan MacKinnon – Mikko Rantanen
Valeri Nichushkin – Casey Mittelstadt – Ivan Ivan
Joel Kiviranta – Parker Kelly – Logan O’Connor
Miles Wood – Chase Bradley – Nikolai Kovalenko

Devon Toews – Cale Makar
Samuel Girard-Josh Manson
Calvin De Haan – Sam Malinski

Vegas Golden Knights

The Golden Knights enter this game with a 5-4 shootout win over the Philadelphia Flyers. However, that win only came after they were three goals down. While they were able to stage a comeback against the Flyers and ultimately win the game, call me crazy, that’s not the way they should hope to win the game tonight. Falling behind by multiple goals against a high-powered offense like Colorado’s is no way to win a hockey game.

Planned lineup

Ivan Barbashev – Jack Eichel – Cal Burke
Tomas Hertl – Nicholas Roy – Keegan Kolesar
Tanner Pearson – Brett Howden – Pavel Dorofeyev
Mason Morelli – Cole Schwindt – Alexander Holtz

Brayden McNabb – Shea Theadore
Noah Hanafin – Nicolas Hague
Kaeden Korczak

goalkeeper

It should come as no surprise to anyone that Alexandar Georgiev will be in net for the Avs here tonight and will likely play against Adin Hill. After Colorado’s last game against Tampa Bay, they will certainly need Georgiev to help them get a win against Vegas tonight.