Projected Lineup: Avalanche at Coyotes (Feb. 27, 2021)

After earning a 3-2 win last night at Gila River Arena, the Colorado Avalanche takes on the Arizona Coyotes tonight in the second half of a back-to-back.
Friday's win marked the start of a four-game road trip for the Avs, who will play at the San Jose Sharks on Monday and Wednesday. This trip is one of five different four-game road swings for Colorado this season, which is the team's longest journey of the campaign.
This weekend is the third of eight instances that the Avalanche plays on consecutive days this year. After last night's win, Colorado is now 2-1-0 in the first game and presently owns a 1-0-1 mark in the second.

The Avalanche did not hold a morning skate this morning so its exact lineup will not be known until closer to game time, but Philipp Grubauer is expected to be in net after Hunter Miska earned his first career NHL win on Friday.
Grubauer has started 14 of Colorado's 17 games this year and is tied for third among all NHL goaltenders in wins (nine), tied for fourth in shutouts (two) and is seventh in goals-against average (2.01).
It is unknown if forward Matt Calvert will be able to play this evening after he was a late scratch on Friday with a lower-body injury. If the veteran is unable to go, it is likely that Sheldon Dries, Logan O'Connor or Kiefer Sherwood will return to game action from the taxi squad.
Colorado is in a stretch that has the squad playing six games in nine days, 15 outings in 26 days (through March 23) and 26 contests in 46 days (through April 12). The club will not go more than one day between games for the rest of the season, which includes five more back-to-backs.
Below is the Avalanche's projected lineup. The forward combinations and defensive pairings are subject to change.
Forwards
92 Gabriel Landeskog - 29 Nathan MacKinnon - 96 Mikko Rantanen
20 Brandon Saad - 91 Nazem Kadri - 72 Joonas Donskoi
13 Valeri Nichushkin - 37 J.T. Compher - 95 Andre Burakovsky
17 Tyson Jost - 41 Pierre-Edouard Bellemare and/or 15 Sheldon Dries or 25 Logan O'Connor or 44 Kiefer Sherwood
Defensemen
7 Devon Toews - 8 Cale Makar
27 Ryan Graves - 49 Samuel Girard
4 Bowen Byram - 34 Jacob MacDonald
Goaltenders
31 Philipp Grubauer
32 Hunter Miska
Taxi Squad: Sheldon Dries, Logan O'Connor, Dan Renouf, Kiefer Sherwood, Conor Timmins, Adam Werner
Injury Report: Matt Calvert (lower body), Pavel Francouz (lower body), Dennis Gilbert (upper body), Erik Johnson (upper body)