Colorado Avalanche Gameday Preview: Visitors from the island

Here comes their weekend win Nashville PredatorsThe Colorado Avalanche have replaced their entire fourth line for tonight’s game New York Islanders. They’re looking to win back-to-back games for just the second time in December over an Isles team that just snapped a three-game losing streak with a 5-2 win in Las Vegas.

COLORADO VOYAGE

The top six look to have strengthened with the return of Evan Rodrigues from injury, but half of last game’s bottom six are now elsewhere. Jean-Luc Foudy and Charles Hudon were sent to the Eagles, and Dryden Hunt was traded to the Toronto Maple Leafs in exchange for Denis Malgin. In their places, Martin Kaut was invited to play after the Malgin exchange, although he cannot play on the same day he was traded due to travel and visa issues.

Kaut will likely line up with Kurtis MacDermid fresh off IR. Darren Helm skated in the morning in a red non-contact jersey. Kaut might center MacDermid on paper, but both guys will likely see very limited minutes. It will certainly be interesting to see how this goes. For now, we’ll have to wait and see what the fourth line actually looks like, unless Helm makes a surprise call to play.

PROJECTIVE LINES

Mikko Rantanen (96) JT Compher (37) Artturi Lehkonen (62)
Alex Newhook (18) Evan Rodrigues (9) Val Nichushkin (13)
Andrew Cogliano (11) Ben Meyers (59) Logan O’Connor (25)
Kurtis MacDermid (56) Jacob MacDonald (26) Martin Kaut (61)

Devon Toews (7) Cale Makar (8)
Erik Johnson (6) Samuel Girard (49)
Andreas Englund (88) Brad Hunt (17)

UPDATE: Jacob MacDonald is IN tonight and is on the fourth line.

NEW YORK ISLANDS

December has been a trying month for the Isles, with wins in Vegas and New Jersey and at home against Chicago sandwiched between losses. Goaltender Semjon Varlamov was injured in Vegas and they’re already missing a few key players in Adam Pelech, Cal Clutterbuck and Kyle Palmieri, but they’re still very much the team that came back to beat Colorado with four third-period goals in October.

Without Pelech, young defensemen Alexander Romanov and Robin Salo have stepped up and contributed, though Ryan Pulocks’ struggles have highlighted his longtime partner’s absence. The regression of the high-salary Pelech-Pulock pairing over the past few years has been the main reason for the Islanders’ recent struggles and makes this blueline group very useful for opposing offenses.

PROTECTED configuration

Josh Bailey (12) – Mat Barzal (13) – Oliver Wahlstrom (26)
Anders Lee (27) – Brock Nelson (29) – Anthony Beauviller (18)
Zach Parise (11) – Jean-Gabriel Pageau (44) Simon Holmstrom (10)
Matt Martin (17) – Casey Cizikas (53) Hudson Fasching (20)

Alexander Romanov (28) – Noah Dobson (8)
Sebastian Aho (25) – Scott Mayfield (24)
Robin Salo (2) – Ryan Pulock (6)

Goalkeepers

Ilya Sorokin will be playing in New York and Aleksandar Georgiev will likely be in Colorado as it seems he and Pavel Francouz are trading every two games at the moment.