Game 6 Projected Lineup: Avalanche vs. Sharks

The Colorado Avalanche will use an 11-forward, seven-defensemen alignment for Game 6 of its second-round series against the San Jose Sharks, head coach Jared Bednar announced following today's morning skate.

Defenseman Patrik Nemeth will reenter the lineup and make his series debut after being a healthy scratch for the past five games. Nemeth last played in Game 5 of the Avs' Round 1 series against the Calgary Flames.
Forward Matt Calvert is still dealing with an upper-body injury that he suffered in Game 2 against the Sharks and won't play for the third time in a week. After missing the third contest of the series with the ailment, Calvert returned for Game 4 last Thursday but didn't play in the team's outing on Saturday in San Jose.
Bednar did not say which forward will be the extra scratch.
Goaltender Philipp Grubauer will start in net for Colorado. He made a playoff career-high 37 saves in Game 5 on Saturday.
Below is the Avalanche's projected lineup for Game 6 based on the forward combinations and defensive pairings from Saturday's game in San Jose. With Colorado's extra scratch skater presently unknown, the lineup includes all 12 forwards that appeared in Game 5.

Forwards

92 Gabriel Landeskog - 29 Nathan MacKinnon - 96 Mikko Rantanen
22 Colin Wilson - 17 Tyson Jost - 13 Alexander Kerfoot
83 Matt Nieto - 34 Carl Soderberg - 37 J.T. Compher
57 Gabriel Bourque and/or 18 Derick Brassard and/or 10 Sven Andrighetto

Defensemen

28 Ian Cole - 6 Erik Johnson
16 Nikita Zadorov - 4 Tyson Barrie
49 Samuel Girard - 8 Cale Makar
12 Patrik Nemeth

Goaltenders

31 Philipp Grubauer (starter)
1 Semyon Varlamov (backup)
Healthy Scratches: 24 A.J. Greer, 25 Logan O'Connor, 27 Ryan Graves, 39 Pavel Francouz, 44 Mark Barberio, 47 Dominic Toninato, 54 Anton Lindholm 91 Vladislav Kamenev
Injury Report:11 Matt Calvert (upper body)
Joe Pavelski took part in the San Jose Sharks' optional morning skate, but head coach Peter DeBoer said the club's captain won't play this evening. He has missed every contest of the second-round series after getting hurt in Game 7 of Round 1 against the Vegas Golden Knights.
The Sharks aren't expected to make any changes to their lineup for Game 6 against the Avalanche. Goaltender Martin Jones will start after making 21 saves in Saturday's contest.
Below are the forward combinations and defensive pairings for Game 6, courtesy of
SanJoseSharks.com.

Forwards

28 Timo Meier - 39 Logan Couture - 14 Gustav Nyquist
9 Evander Kane - 48 Tomas Hertl - 27 Joonas Donskoi
20 Marcus Sorensen - 19 Joe Thornton - 62 Kevin Lablanc
18 Michael Haley - 23 Barclay Goodrow - 68 Melker Karlsson

Defensemen

44 Marc-Edouard Vlasic - 88 Brent Burns
4 Brenden Dillon - 65 Erik Karlsson
47 Joakim Ryan - 61 Justin Braun

Goaltenders

31 Martin Jones (starter)
30 Aaron Dell (backup)
Scratches:7 Dylan Gambrell, 51 Radim Simek, 72 Tim Heed, 40 Antti Suomela, 52 Lukas Radil
Injury Report: 8 Joe Pavelski (undisclosed)