Avalanche at Stars preview

AVALANCHE (8-4-2) at STARS (7-8-1)
8:30 p.m. ET; ESPN+, FS-SW, ALT, NHL.TV

Dallas has outscored its opponents 12-5 in the past three games and is 6-1-0 in its past seven games after beginning the season 1-7-1.
Goalie Ben Bishop, who has a 1.63 goals-against average and .950 save percentage in his past five starts, will start for the Stars, who will be without Roope Hintz.
The forward, who is out one week because of a lower-body injury, leads Dallas in scoring with 11 points (nine goals, two assists) in 16 games. Hintz is doubtful to play at the Winnipeg Jets on Sunday and is likely to return at the Calgary Flames on Nov. 13, coach Jim Montgomery said.
Colorado is 0-3-1 in its past four games and has scored one goal in its past two games.
The Stars won 2-1 against the Avalanche in Denver on Friday.

Players to watch

Avalanche center Nathan MacKinnon has 18 points (eight goals, 10 assists), including at least one in 13 of Colorado's 14 games this season.
Stars forward Joe Pavelski has five points (one goal, four assists) in a three-game point streak.

They said it

"I don't think it matters because they saw us four days ago, too. We liked some things that we did late in that game. I did not like the start of that game. I think both teams know each other pretty well because we play each other a lot. It's going to come down to execution and who wants it more." -- Avalanche coach Jared Bednar
"We thought that was the best team we've played when we were in Colorado last Friday. Obviously, they're missing [forward Mikko] Rantanen and [forward Gabriel] Landeskog, but they're still a team that comes after you at both ends of the ice." -- Stars coach Jim Montgomery

Avalanche projected lineup

Tyson Jost -- Nazem Kadri -- J.T. Compher
Matt Nieto -- Nathan MacKinnon -- Joonas Donskoi
Andre Burakovsky -- Pierre-Edouard Bellemare -- Matt Calvert
Valeri Nichushkin -- Vladislav Kamenev -- Jayson Megna
Samuel Girard -- Erik Johnson
Ian Cole -- Cale Makar
Nikita Zadorov -- Ryan Graves
Philipp Grubauer
Pavel Francouz
Scratched: Mark Barberio
Injured: Gabriel Landeskog (lower body), Mikko Rantanen (lower body), Colin Wilson (lower body)

Stars projected lineup

Denis Gurianov -- Tyler Seguin -- Alexander Radulov
Jamie Benn -- Jason Dickinson -- Joe Pavelski
Mattias Janmark -- Justin Dowling -- Corey Perry
Andrew Cogliano -- Radek Faksa -- Blake Comeau
Esa Lindell -- John Klingberg
Jamie Oleksiak -- Miro Heiskanen
Joel Hanley
-- Taylor Fedun
Ben Bishop
Anton Khudobin
Scratched: None
Injured: Roope Hintz (lower body), Andrej Sekera (upper body), Roman Polak (upper body), Stephen Johns (post traumatic headaches), Martin Hanzal (back)

Status report

Nichushkin will return to Dallas for the first time since signing with Colorado on Aug. 19.

Stat pack

MacKinnon has 28 points (10 goals, 18 assists) in 28 games against Dallas. … Makar is tied with Toronto Maple Leafs forward Ilya Mikheyev for the NHL rookie scoring lead with 11 points (one goal, 10 assists) in 14 games. … Comeau will play in his 800th NHL game. … Seguin has 34 points (16 goals, 18 assists) in 28 games against the Avalanche. … The Stars are 6-2-0 in their past eight home games against Colorado.