Grubauer has won six straight games, matching his career-long win streak and ranks first in the NHL in games (25), starts (24-tied), shutouts (5) and goals-against average (1.74) this year. He is also second in the league in wins (18) and third in save percentage (.929).
The only change that the Avs are expected to make to its lineup is that Grubauer will be backed up by Jonas Johansson instead of Adam Werner. Colorado acquired Johansson from the Buffalo Sabres on Saturday and he could make his Avalanche debut on Tuesday in the second half of the back-to-back, but head coach Jared Bednar said that decision will be made after tonight's game.
Bednar did have some good news after Colorado's morning skate regarding young defenseman Conor Timmins. Timmins last played on March 6 and has missed seven games with an upper-body injury but Bednar noted that he been skating for "quite some time" and is progressing.
Timmins could be cleared soon, though he remains day-to-day, but Bednar said he "would like to think that it's going to be here in the near future."
This evening's contest opens the fifth back-to-back set of the season for the Avalanche and the second of the year in Arizona. The Avs defeated the Coyotes in both meetings when they met on consecutive nights on Feb. 26-27. In that set, Colorado won 3-2 in the first outing and 6-2 in the second.
In total, the Avalanche has played four back-to-backs so far this year and gained points in seven of those eight total games (5-1-2) with a 3-1-0 mark in the first half and a 2-0-2 record in the second.
Below is the Avalanche's projected lineup based on the forward combinations and defensive pairings from Saturday's game against the Minnesota Wild. They are subject to change.
Forwards
92 Gabriel Landeskog - 29 Nathan MacKinnon - 96 Mikko Rantanen
20 Brandon Saad - 91 Nazem Kadri - 95 Andre Burakovsky
13 Valeri Nichushkin - 17 Tyson Jost - 72 Joonas Donskoi
11 Matt Calvert - 41 Pierre-Edouard Bellemare - 37 J.T. Compher
Defensemen
7 Devon Toews - 8 Cale Makar
34 Jacob MacDonald - 49 Samuel Girard
27 Ryan Graves - 4 Bowen Byram
Goaltenders
31 Philipp Grubauer
35 Jonas Johansson
Healthy Scratch: Logan O'Connor
Taxi Squad: Jayson Megna, Greg Pateryn, Dan Renouf, Kiefer Sherwood, Adam Werner
Injury Report: Pavel Francouz (lower body), Erik Johnson (upper body), Conor Timmins (upper body)
