Projected Lineup: Avalanche at Ducks (April 9, 2021)

The Colorado Avalanche will make changes to its lineup this evening when it continues its four-game road trip against the Anaheim Ducks at Honda Center. It is the seventh of eight meetings between the Avs and Ducks this year and the third in Southern California.
Colorado is 1-1-0 so far on this trip after splitting games at the Minnesota Wild on Monday and Wednesday.

The Avalanche saw its 15-game point streak (13-0-2) end on Wednesday. The streak was the second-longest in franchise history, just one shy of the record set in 2000-01. The Avs outscored their opposition 67-28 (plus-39) during the stretch.
Defenseman Jacob MacDonald will be out for the next two outings after getting suspended for two games for an illegal check to the head on Wednesday in Minnesota. He could be replaced by taxi squad blueliners Keaton Middleton or Greg Pateryn.
The Avs did not hold a morning skate this morning so their exact lineup and starting goaltender will not be known until closer to game time.
Rookie Bowen Byram was added to the NHL's COVID protocol list on Friday. He has missed the last seven contests with an upper-body injury that he suffered on March 25 versus the Vegas Golden Knights.
Colorado is 5-1-0 in its last six games, 13-1-2 in its previous 16 and 17-3-3 in its last 23. The Avs are 6-2-1 in their last nine road contests.
Below is the Avalanche's projected lineup based on the forward combinations and defensive pairings from Colorado's last outing on Wednesday. They are subject to change.
Forwards
92 Gabriel Landeskog - 29 Nathan MacKinnon - 96 Mikko Rantanen
20 Brandon Saad - 91 Nazem Kadri - 95 Andre Burakovsky
13 Valeri Nichushkin - 17 Tyson Jost - 72 Joonas Donskoi
38 Liam O'Brien - 41 Pierre-Edouard Bellemare - 37 J.T. Compher
Defensemen
49 Samuel Girard - 7 Devon Toews
27 Ryan Graves - 8 Cale Makar
88 Kyle Burroughs - 67 Keaton Middleton OR 5 Greg Pateryn
Goaltenders
31 Philipp Grubauer OR 35 Jonas Johansson
Scratch: Jacob MacDonald
Taxi Squad: Peyton Jones, Jayson Megna
Injury Report: Bowen Byram (upper body & COVID protocol), Matt Calvert (upper body), Pavel Francouz (lower body), Erik Johnson (upper body), Logan O'Connor (lower body)