Colorado Avalanche Gameday: Shipping up to Boston

Dec 3, 2022 - 6:00 PM

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Saturday night hockey with two of the best teams in the National Hockey League. What more could you ask for?

The Colorado Avalanche head to Massachusetts to play one of the top teams in the league with the Boston Bruins. In the midst of this four game road trip for the Avs, game three of it is arguably one of the games of the year as we reach the quarter point in the season.

Colorado Avalanche

The Avs are coming off a hard-fought 6-4 win over the Buffalo Sabres Thursday night. While it wasn’t the prettiest game in the world with eight penalties, two goals apiece from Nathan MacKinnon and J.T. Compher got them over the hump.

While they were four of the six goalscorers Thursday night, they’ll need some help with reinforcements. It sounds as if one reinforcement is coming back, as Martin Kaut is reported to have rested up from his illness and is joining the team in Boston, and may feature in the lineup.

Otherwise, there’s another name gone missing in the team sheet: Josh Manson. Manson didn’t play a shift in the third period against the Sabres and sent back to Denver out for week-to-week with an LBI. Andreas Englund has been called back up to be part of the defense looking to go head-to-head against a hot opposing offense.

Projected Lines

Artturi Lehkonen (62) - Nathan MacKinnon (29) - Mikko Rantanen (96)
Andrew Cogliano (11) - J.T. Compher (37) - Martin Kaut (61)
Alex Galchenyuk (47) - Alex Newhook (18) - Logan O’Connor (25)
Dryden Hunt (22) - Jayson Megna (12) - Jean-Luc Foudy (93)

Cale Makar (8) - Devon Toews (7)
Jacob MacDonald (26) - Sam Girard (49)
Andreas Englund (88) - Erik Johnson (6)

Boston Bruins

The Bruins are red-hot in the Eastern Conference right now. Only behind the also red-hot New Jersey Devils, the Bruins sit first in the Atlantic Division and are coming off a 3-1 win over the Tampa Bay Lightning.

Boston hasn’t played since Tuesday evening, a long-extended break to prepare them to host the Stanley Cup champs. It will only help their cause, as they have an impressive 13-0 record at TD Garden.

They’ll get a great look at the depleted Avs as this is the first of two meetings in just five days. With names like David Pastrnak and Brad Marchand continuing to toe the line, the Bruins look to make it 14 wins on home ice and earn bragging rights in this, shall we say, Stanley Cup Final preview.

Projected Lines

Brad Marchand (63) - Patrice Bergeron (37) - Jake DeBrusk (74)
Pavel Zacha (18) - David Krecji (46) - David Pastrnak (88)
Taylor Hall (71) - Charlie Coyle (13) - Trent Frederic (11)
Nick Foligno (17) - Tomas Nosek (92) - A.J. Greer (10)

Hampus Lindholm (27) - Charlie McAvoy (73)
Matt Grzelcyk (48) - Brandon Carlo (25)
Derek Forbort (28) - Connor Clifton (75)

Goaltenders

For the Avs, it will be Pavel Francouz facing off against Jeremey Swayman for the Bruins in what will hopefully be a closely contested affair.