Canadiens at Avalanche preview

CANADIENS (22-26-7) at AVALANCHE (30-21-4)
9:30 p.m. ET; ALT, TSN2, RDS, NHL.TV

The Quebec Nordiques won 10 straight at home twice, from Nov. 26, 1983-Jan. 10, 1984 and from March 6-April 16, 1995.
Goaltender Semyon Varlamov will start for the Avalanche, 3-5-1 in their past nine games after a 10-game winning streak. Colorado is four points behind the Minnesota Wild for the second wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Western Conference.
Goaltender Antti Niemi will start for the Canadiens, who have lost two straight and are 4-6-3 in their past 13 games. Montreal trails the Carolina Hurricanes by 12 points for the second wild card in the Eastern Conference.

Players to watch

Canadiens forward Brendan Gallagher has five points (two goals, three assists) in a four-game point streak, and eight points (four goals, four assists) in his past eight games.
Avalanche forward Mikko Rantanen has five assists in his past eight games after having 25 points (nine goals, 16 assists) in his previous 19 games.

They said it

"We have to bring something extra on the road. I don't think we've been doing that lately. Hopefully we can do that on this road trip." -- Canadiens defenseman Joe Morrow on Montreal opening a four-game road trip
"It takes more than .500 hockey to stay in this race right now, especially in our [Central] division, which is unfortunate, but that's the facts. If we're just looking to survive, then we're not going to keep pace. We feel like we have enough to win." -- Avalanche coach Jared Bednar

Canadiens projected lineup

Max Pacioretty -- Paul Byron -- Artturi Lehkonen
Charles Hudon -- Tomas Plekanec -- Brendan Gallagher
Alex Galchenyuk -- Jonathan Drouin -- Nikita Scherbak
Nicolas Deslauriers -- Byron Froese -- Logan Shaw
Karl Alzner -- Jeff Petry
Joe Morrow -- Jordie Benn
Victor Mete -- David Schlemko
Antti Niemi
Carey Price
Scratched:Daniel Carr, Jacob de la Rose, Jakub Jerabek
Injured:Phillip Danault (concussion), Ales Hemsky (upper body), Andrew Shaw (lower body), Shea Weber (foot)

Avalanche projected lineup

Gabriel Landeskog -- Alex Kerfoot -- Colin Wilson
Matt Nieto -- Carl Soderberg -- Mikko Rantanen
Tyson Jost -- J.T. Compher -- Gabriel Bourque
A.J. Greer -- Dominic Toninato -- Nail Yakupov
Nikita Zadorov -- Erik Johnson
Patrik Nemeth -- Samuel Girard
Anton Lindholm -- Tyson Barrie
Semyon Varlamov
Jonathan Bernier
Scratched: Rocco Grimaldi, Duncan Siemens
Injured: Sven Andrighetto (lower body), Mark Barberio (lower body), Blake Comeau (lower body), Vladislav Kamenev (fractured arm), Nathan MacKinnon (upper body)

Status report

Danault will miss his 13th consecutive game. ... MacKinnon skated Wednesday in a non-contact jersey after practicing in non-contact drills Tuesday. He was placed on injured reserve retroactive to Jan. 30 to make room for Grimaldi and Siemens, who were recalled from San Antonio of the American Hockey League.

Stat pack

Niemi has a 9-3-3 career record against Colorado. ... This is the 3,000th regular-season game for the Quebec/Colorado franchise, the 1,744th game for the Avalanche.