Philipp Grubauer is expected to be between the pipes for the Avs. He finished the first round 4-0 with a 1.75 goals-against average and .936 save percentage.
The four straight wins tie Grubauer's career-long postseason win streak (third time) and equal the longest streak by an Avalanche/Nordiques goaltender to start a playoff year. Patrick Roy won his first four starts to begin the 2001 playoffs and Dan Bouchard did the same for Quebec to start the 1984 postseason.
The matchup against Vegas marks the first time the Avs and Knights will meet in a playoff series and is Colorado's 37th postseason set since arriving in Denver (22-14 record). Overall, it is the 52nd playoff series in franchise history (28-23 record) and 46th best-of-seven set (25-20).
Erik Johnson was on the ice prior to Colorado's optional morning skate. He has been out since suffering an upper-body injury on Jan. 30 at the Minnesota Wild was limited to four games in the regular season. Bednar said Johnson is taking it step-by-step in his return to play, and he didn't have an update on when Johnson could get back in game action.
Below is the Avalanche's projected lineup based on the forward combinations and defensive pairings from Friday's practice with either Newhook or Ranta playing. They are subject to change.
Forwards
92 Gabriel Landeskog - 29 Nathan MacKinnon - 96 Mikko Rantanen
95 Andre Burakovsky - 37 J.T. Compher - 72 Joonas Donskoi
20 Brandon Saad - 17 Tyson Jost - 13 Valeri Nichushkin
34 Carl Soderberg - 41 Pierre-Edouard Bellemare - 75 Sampo Ranta and/or 18 Alex Newhook
Defensemen
7 Devon Toews - 8 Cale Makar
49 Samuel Girard - 27 Ryan Graves
24 Patrik Nemeth - 22 Conor Timmins
Goaltenders
31 Philipp Grubauer
40 Devan Dubnyk
Scratches: Bowen Byram, Jonas Johansson, Nazem Kadri, Jacob MacDonald, Kiefer Sherwood
Injury Report: Matt Calvert (upper body), Pavel Francouz (lower body), Erik Johnson (upper body), Logan O'Connor (lower body)
Max Pacioretty played his first game of the 2021 Stanley Cup Playoffs in Vegas' Game 7 on Friday, and he is expected to dress again this evening. He missed the team's previous 12 contests with an undisclosed injury.
Defenseman Brayden McNabb will not be available for the first outing in the best-of-seven series, as he has been on the NHL's COVID-19 protocol list since Wednesday.
Below is the Golden Knights' projected lineup based on the forward combinations and defensive pairings from Vegas' last outing on Friday.
Forwards
67 Max Pacioretty - 20 Chandler Stephenson - 61 Mark Stone
81 Jonathan Marchessault - 71 William Karlsson - 19 Reilly Smith
26 Mattias Janmark - 10 Nicolas Roy - 89 Alex Tuch
28 William Carrier - 38 Patrick Brown - 75 Ryan Reaves
Defensemen
23 Alec Martinez - 7 Alex Pietrangelo
22 Nick Holden - 27 Shea Theodore
14 Nicolas Hague - 2 Zach Whitecloud
Goaltenders
29 Marc-Andre Fleury
90 Robin Lehner
