Projected Lineup: Avalanche vs. Blackhawks

The Colorado Avalanche wraps up its season series with the Chicago Blackhawks this weekend with a back-to-back, home-and-home set that opens this afternoon in Denver and concludes on Sunday in the Windy City.
It is the Avs' first home-and-home, back-to-back series since Dec. 16-17, 2013 against the Dallas Stars.
Colorado is 1-1-0 against the Blackhawks this year, 0-1-1 at home and 1-0-0 on the road. The Central Division rivals will face off five times this year, as Chicago and the Winnipeg Jets are the only division opponents to meet the Avs five times instead of four.

The Avalanche did not hold a pregame skate due to the 1 p.m. MT puck drop, so the team's exact lineup won't be clear until closer to game time.
It is unknown if Mikko Rantanen will be an option for head coach Jared Bednar against Chicago. The forward left Colorado's last game in Dallas on Thursday after being hit along the boards in the third period.
Rantanen did not participate in an optional practice on Friday and Bednar noted that the forward was going to be re-evaluated later in the afternoon. The Nousiainen, Finland, native is the Avs' second-leading scorer and has already recorded career highs this season with 31 goals, 56 assists and 87 points in 74 games.
Netminder Philipp Grubauer, who is expected to be between the pipes, has started in five of the Avs' last six games and made a career-high 44 saves on Thursday against the Stars. In his last eight games (seven starts), the German goaltender is 5-2-0 with three shutouts and owns a 0.85 goals-against average and .972 save percentage.
Colorado has dressed 11 forwards and seven defensemen for the past three games and is 3-0-0 in that span.
Below is the Avs' projected lineup based on the forward combinations and defensive pairings from Colorado's last game in Dallas on Thursday. They are subject to change.

Forwards

18 Derick Brassard - 29 Nathan MacKinnon - 37 J.T. Compher
22 Colin Wilson - 34 Carl Soderberg - 96 Mikko Rantanen
13 Alexander Kerfoot - 17 Tyson Jost - 11 Matt Calvert
10 Sven Andrighetto - 57 Gabriel Bourque

Defensemen

49 Samuel Girard - 6 Erik Johnson
28 Ian Cole - 4 Tyson Barrie
12 Patrik Nemeth - 16 Nikita Zadorov
27 Ryan Graves

Goaltenders

31 Philipp Grubauer
1 Semyon Varlamov
Healthy Scratch:26 Andrew Agozzino
Injury Report: 44 Mark Barberio (lower body), 83 Matt Nieto (lower body), 91 Vladislav Kamenev (shoulder), 92 Gabriel Landeskog (upper body)