Patrik Nemeth served as the seventh rear guard in the win. It was his first contest of the second round and sixth of the 2019 Stanley Cup Playoffs. He is averaging 15:13 of ice time per game and has a plus-5 rating.
"There are aspects of it that I really like for us up front. It gets all of our forwards into the game, and that is what we want," Bednar said of the 11-and-seven configuration. "So they know they're going out, there is no room to hide, you can't have an off night. Usually we're more engaged when we play 11 forwards up front as a whole.
"It's a little bit tougher on the back end for those guys, but I think they understand the situation. It worked, we got a real good player in Nemeth coming in, so we're going to go with the same lineup."
Goaltender Philipp Grubauer will once again start in net for Colorado. He has been between the pipes in every game of the postseason so far, recording a 2.23 goals-against average and .928 save percentage.
Below is the Avalanche's projected lineup for Game 7. All forward combinations and defensive pairings are subject to change.
