Game 2 Projected Lineup: Avalanche vs. Blues

The Colorado Avalanche looks to expand its series lead against the St. Louis Blues tonight in Game 2 of Stanley Cup Playoffs First Round at Ball Arena.
Colorado is up 1-0 in the best-of-seven set following a 4-1 win in the series opener on Monday night.
Goaltender Philipp Grubauer will start in net for Colorado and will suit up in his 21st playoff game for the franchise. With his appearance in Game 1, he moved into sole possession of fourth place in postseason games played by a goalie in Avalanche/Quebec Nordiques history.

Grubauer owns a 13-5-1 career playoff record with the Avalanche and passed Dan Bouchard (12) for sole possession of third place on the team's playoff wins list with his 22-save victory versus the Blues. The Rosenheim, Germany, native's .925 save percentage and 2.09 goals-against average with the Avs are both the best in franchise playoff annals.
Avalanche head coach Jared Bednar noted on Tuesday that rookie defenseman Bowen Byram has been cleared medically after missing the final 24 games of the regular season with an upper-body injury, suffered on March 25 versus the Vegas Golden Knights. Bednar did not give lineup details after today's morning skate.
Below is the Avalanche's projected lineup for Game 2 against the Blues. The forward combinations and defensive pairings are based on the start of Monday's outing and are subject to change.
Forwards
92 Gabriel Landeskog - 29 Nathan MacKinnon - 96 Mikko Rantanen
95 Andre Burakovsky - 91 Nazem Kadri - 72 Joonas Donskoi
20 Brandon Saad - 17 Tyson Jost - 13 Valeri Nichushkin
18 Alex Newhook - 41 Pierre-Edouard Bellemare - 37 J.T. Compher
Defensemen
7 Devon Toews - 8 Cale Makar
49 Samuel Girard - 27 Ryan Graves
24 Patrik Nemeth - 22 Conor Timmins
Goaltenders
31 Philipp Grubauer
35 Jonas Johansson
Scratches: Dennis Gilbert, Liam O'Brien, Jacob MacDonald, Jayson Megna, Dan Renouf, Kiefer Sherwood, Carl Soderberg
Injury Report: Bowen Byram (upper body), Matt Calvert (upper body), Devan Dubnyk (returning from COVID protocol), Pavel Francouz (lower body), Erik Johnson (upper body), Logan O'Connor (lower body)
The St. Louis Blues held a morning skate today, but
the team issued a statement
beforehand that head coach Craig Berube and the players won't be made available to the media until after tonight's game due to discrepancies in COVID-19 test results as well as additional testing that is needed.
Goaltender Jordan Binnington is expected to start in net after making a playoff career-high 46 saves in Game 1.
Below are the Blues' forward combinations and defensive pairings from the start of Monday's contest. They are subject to change.
Forwards
17 Jaden Schwartz - 90 Ryan O'Reilly - 10 Brayden Schenn
49 Ivan Barbashev - 21 Tyler Bozak - 91 Vladimir Tarasenko
68 Mike Hoffman - 18 Robert Thomas - 25 Jordan Kyrou
13 Kyle Clifford - 12 Zach Sanford - 9 Sammy Blais
Defensemen
47 Torey Krug - 72 Justin Faulk
6 Marco Scandella - 55 Colton Parayko
77 Niko Mikkola - 41 Robert Bortuzzo
Goaltenders
50 Jordan Binnington
35 Ville Husso