It’s a night of debuts for the Colorado Avalanche tonight as they return to Staples Center to take on the Los Angeles Kings. The Avs took the first meeting on Tuesday 3-2.
Rookie Bowen Byram will skate as the Avalanche’s seventh defender, as the team will ice 11 forwards and seven defenders. Greg Pateryn, acquired in a trade with the Minnesota Wild, will dress for the Avalanche for the first time tonight. Backup goaltender Hunter Miska will see his first NHL start tonight, as well, taking over the Avalanche crease.
Jonathan Quick will return to the Kings’ crease, after Cal Peterson debuted on Tuesday. Jeff Carter (1 goal, 4 assists) and Andre Kopitar (4 assists) are currently leading the team in points, while Andreas Athanasiou is leading in goals (3).
Lines
LOS ANGELES KINGS
Adrian Kempe — Anze Kopitar — Alex Iafallo
Andreas Athanasiou — Blake Lizotte — Jeff Carter
Lias Andersson — Gabriel Vilardi — Dustin Brown
Trevor Moore — Michael Amadio — Austin Wagner
Olli Maatta — Drew Doughty
Mikey Anderson — Matt Roy
Kale Clague — Sean Walker
Jonathan Quick
Calvin Petersen
Expected Scratches: Kurtis MacDermid, Carl Grundstrom
Injured Reserve: Matt Luff (undisclosed), Martin Frk (lower body), Alex Turcotte (lower body)
COLORADO AVALANCHE
Gabriel Landeskog — Nathan MacKinnon — Mikko Rantanen
Brandon Saad — Nazem Kadri — Valeri Nichushkin
Tyson Jost — J.T. Compher — Joonas Donskoi
Pierre-Edouard Bellemare — Matt Calvert
Devon Toews — Cale Makar
Ryan Graves — Samuel Girard
Greg Pateryn — Conor Timmins
Bowen Byram
Hunter Miska
Philipp Grubauer
Expected Scratches: Erik Johnson
Injured Reserve: Pavel Francouz (lower body), Andre Burakovsky (upper body)
How to Watch
Puck drop is at 7 p.m. PT/10 p.m. ET at Staples Center in Los Angeles, California. Tonight’s game will be broadcast regionally on SNE, SNO, SNW, FS-W, and ALT, as well as available to stream through NHL.tv. or through ESPN+.
Follow along in the comments for live updates and reactions throughout the game!