Grubauer has started 15 of Colorado's 18 games and is tied for third among all NHL goaltenders in wins (10), tied for fourth in shutouts (two) and is seventh in goals-against average (2.01).
On defense, Cale Makar remains out with an upper-body injury and head coach Jared Bednar said that the rear guard traveled back to Denver for treatment. Dan Renouf played his first game as a member of the Avalanche--and his second in his NHL careeer--on Saturday with Makar out and finished the outing with three hits and one shot in 11:20 of ice time.
This evening's matchup is the third of eight meetings between the Avalanche and Sharks this year and the first of four at SAP Center. Colorado won the first two contests in Denver, outscoring San Jose by a combined 10-3 margin (7-3, 3-0).
Tonight, the Avalanche begins its busiest month ever, as the club will play 17 games in 31 days during March. The previous franchise mark for the most games in a month was 16 on five previous occasions.
Below is the Avalanche's projected lineup based on the forward combinations and defensive pairings from the start of Saturday's game at the Coyotes. They are subject to change.
Forwards
20 Brandon Saad - 29 Nathan MacKinnon - 95 Andre Burakovsky
92 Gabriel Landeskog - 91 Nazem Kadri - 96 Mikko Rantanen
13 Valeri Nichushkin - 37 J.T. Compher - 72 Joonas Donskoi
17 Tyson Jost - 41 Pierre-Edouard Bellemare - 25 Logan O'Connor
Defensemen
4 Bowen Byram - 7 Devon Toews
27 Ryan Graves - 49 Samuel Girard
2 Dan Renouf - 34 Jacob MacDonald
Goaltenders
31 Philipp Grubauer
32 Hunter Miska
Taxi Squad:Sheldon Dries, Kiefer Sherwood, Conor Timmins, Adam Werner
Injury Report:Matt Calvert (upper body), Pavel Francouz (lower body), Dennis Gilbert (upper body), Erik Johnson (upper body), Cale Makar (upper body)
