Blackhawks at Avalanche preview

BLACKHAWKS (32-36-10) at AVALANCHE (41-28-8)
9 p.m. ET, ALT2, NBCSCH, NHL.TV

The Avalanche, 9-4-3 in their past 16 games, are one point each behind the St. Louis Blues, who hold the first wild card, and the Anaheim Ducks, who hold the second wild card. St. Louis has a game in hand on Anaheim and Colorado.
Goaltender Semyon Varlamov will start for Colorado after missing one game because of illness.
The Blackhawks, 3-6-2 in their past 11 games, have been eliminated from playoff contention.
Goaltender Collin Delia is expected to make his second start for the Blackhawks. He made his NHL debut Thursday and earned the win in a 6-2 victory against the Winnipeg Jets, and made 25 saves before leaving in the third period because of cramping. Emergency backup goaltender Scott Foster, who also made his League debut, stopped all seven shots he faced in 14:01 of relief.

Players to watch

Blackhawks forward Patrick Kane has 17 points (four goals, 13 assists) in his past 16 games.
Avalanche forward Nathan MacKinnon has no points in his past three games after getting 31 points (14 goals, 17 assists) in his previous 16 games.

They said it

"I've never forced trying to be a leader. There are lots of parts to being a leader. Whether it's talking to guys or getting them up before a game or leading by example on the ice, there's lots of ways you can lead." -- Blackhawks defenseman Brent Seabrook, who played his 1,000th NHL game Thursday
"We're in a race and every single point matters. Every single game is bigger than the [previous] one. It's exciting." -- Avalanche forward Sven Andrighetto

Blackhawks projected lineup

Brandon Saad -- Nick Schmaltz -- Patrick Kane
Dylan Sikura -- Victor Ejdsell -- Alex DeBrincat
Tomas Jurco --
Artem Ansimov
-- Andreas Martinsen
Patrick Sharp -- David Kampf -- Vinnie Hinostroza
Duncan Keith -- Brent Seabrook
Blake Hillman -- Connor Murphy
Jordan Oesterle -- Jan Rutta
Collin Delia
J-F Berube
Scratched: Erik Gustafsson
Injured: Corey Crawford (upper body), Anthony Duclair (lower body), Anton Forsberg (lower body), John Hayden (upper body), Jonathan Toews (upper body)

Avalanche projected lineup

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

Status report

The Blackhawks, who did not hold a morning skate, recalled Berube from Rockford of the American Hockey League ... The Avalanche assigned goaltender Spencer Martin to San Antonio of the AHL.

Stat pack

DeBrincat has eight points (five goals, three assists) in his past seven games. … Barrie has no points in four games after getting 15 points (six goals, nine assists) in an 11-game point streak.