"I am anxious to see Varly play, I know he is excited to get back in the net," said Avalanche head coach Jared Bednar. "It's not an easy start here coming into Winnipeg. [I think they are] 17-1-2 in their last 20 home games, so a real tough building to come into, but we are throwing him right in the fire here tonight."
Varlamov has played in 26 games this season and owns a 13-9-2 record with a 2.87 goals-against average and .912 save percentage.
He spent most of the last month on injured reserve but was activated on Thursday and served as Jonathan Bernier's backup at the Edmonton Oilers that night.
Bernier started in each of the 11 games that Varlamov missed with his injury and went 8-2-1 during that stretch.
"To be able to play a rested guy and stick with a hot goalie every once in a while and kind of pick their opponents as to who has had success in the past and look at a little bit of their history against certain teams, I think can help us," Bednar said of having two healthy goaltenders. "We are certainly going to need both of those guys down the stretch here with a tough schedule."
Playing in Winnipeg presents a difficult challenge as the Jets are 18-3-2 at Bell MTS Place this season. They are second in the league in home power-play percentage, finding success with the man advantage 30.5 percent of the time, and are eighth in the NHL in killing penalties on familiar ice, having a success rate 84.9 percent.
Varlamov owns a 12-8-2 record in 24 career games against the Jets and has a 1.26 goals-against average and .963 save percentage versus Winnipeg this season.
He started for Colorado in both meetings versus the Jets this campaign, and the Avalanche won both outings by a score of 3-2 in overtime with each victory coming in the Mile High City.
"We played them many times this year, and it's an important game for us because we are Central Division teams," said defenseman Nikita Zadorov. "If we want to make the playoffs, we got to win those games. We got to get points against those teams. They are big, physical, they are fast. They got good skill up there. They are a pretty good team and its going to be a good battle for us tonight."
Winnipeg leads the Central Division with 69 points and Colorado is currently in ninth place in the Western Conference, one point out of the second wild-card spot. The Avs are only a point behind the Minnesota Wild and two behind the Dallas Stars with one and two games in hand, respectively, on those clubs.
