Avalanche at Coyotes preview

AVALANCHE (19-11-6) at COYOTES (14-18-2)
7 p.m. ET; FS-A Plus, ALT2, NHL.TV

The Game

The Arizona Coyotes will try to slow the highest-scoring line in the NHL when they host the Colorado Avalanche at Gila River Arena on Saturday.
Avalanche forward Mikko Rantanen leads the League with 58 points, Nathan MacKinnon is second with 55 points and Gabriel Landeskog is 14th with 42 points. Rantanen and Landeskog each had a goal and an assist, MacKinnon had two assists and J.T. Compher scored two short-handed goals on the same power play during Colorado's 5-1 road win against the Coyotes on Nov. 23.
Goalie Semyon Varlamov is ill; Philipp Grubauer gets the start for Colorado.
Avalanche forward Colin Wilson is on injured reserve with an upper-body injury sustained in a 2-1 loss to the Chicago Blackhawks on Friday and is listed as week-to-week. Colorado is 2-4-1 in its past seven games.
The Coyotes have lost three consecutive games and seven of eight (1-7-0). They have scored two goals in the past three games.

Players to watch

Avalanche forward Mikko Rantanen needs two points to become the first Avalanche player since the team relocated to Colorado in 1995 to reach 60 points before the NHL's holiday break. He has 29 points (nine goals, 20 assists) in his past 17 games.
Coyotes goalie Adin Hill has a 1.97 goals-against average that is the lowest among NHL goalies who have played at least nine games.

They said it

"That's kind of been the story of us trying to put that (No. 2) line together. We lost (Alexander) Kerfoot, now we lose Wilson. Hopefully the other guys will step up and carry some of the load. But we're going to miss him for sure." -- Avalanche coach Jared Bednar on losing Colin Wilson
"We learned the hard way about their top line the last time. It's pretty well known across the league that line can score when you give them any opportunity. It's going to be a game where we really have to focus on our details and not have the slip-ups or the lapses where we're not focused or dialed in." -- Coyotes defenseman Jakob Chychrun

Avalanche projected lineup

Gabriel Landeskog -- Nathan MacKinnon -- Mikko Rantanen
J.T. Compher -- Alex Kerfoot -- Sven Andrighetto
Matt Nieto -- Carl Soderberg -- Matt Calvert
Gabriel Bourque -- Tyson Jost - Sheldon Dries
Samuel Girard -- Erik Johnson
Ian Cole -- Tyson Barrie
Anton Lindholm -- Patrik Nemeth
Philipp Grubauer
Pavel Francouz
Scratched: A.J. Greer
Injured: Mark Barberio (upper body), Vladislav Kamenev (shoulder), Nikita Zadorov (lower body), Colin Wilson (upper body), Semyon Varlamov (illness)

Coyotes projected lineup

Richard Panik -- Derek Stepan -- Clayton Keller
Alex Galchenyuk -- Nick Schmaltz -- Christian Fischer
Nick Cousins -- Brad Richardson -- Josh Archibald
Lawson Crouse -- Mario Kempe -- Conor Garland
Oliver Ekman-Larsson -- Alex Goligoski
Jakob Chychrun -- Niklas Hjalmarsson
Jordan Oesterle -- Ilya Lyubushkin
Adin Hill
Darcy Kuemper
Scratched: Michael Bunting, Kevin Connauton, Calvin Pickard
Injured: Christian Dvorak (upper body), Jason Demers (lower body), Antti Raanta (lower body), Michael Grabner (upper body), Vinnie Hinostroza (lower body)

Status report

Zadarov will miss a second successive game. … Schmaltz sustained what coach Rick Tocchet called "a little tweak" during practice Friday but is expected to play. Bunting was recalled from Tucson of the American Hockey League as a precaution. … Hinostroza could return this weekend, possibly to play against the San Jose Sharks on Sunday.

Stat pack

The Avalanche have allowed at least four goals in four of their past six games. … MacKinnon has 12 points (two goals, 10 assists) in his past eight games. … Landeskog has 14 points (eight goals, six assists) in his past 10 games. … Varlamov is 8-7-2 with a 2.66 goals-against average in 18 games against Arizona. … Keller doesn't have a goal in his past nine games.