Avalanche at Stars preview
Colorado 2-4-0 in previous six games; Radulov returns to lineup for Dallas
by Josh Clark / NHL.com Independent Correspondent
AVALANCHE (23-12-3) at STARS (20-14-4)
7 p.m. ET; FS-SW+, ALT2, NHL.TV
The Game
Alexander Radulov will return to the lineup for the Dallas Stars when they host the Colorado Avalanche at American Airlines Center on Saturday.
The forward, who missed the previous two games with a lower-body injury, will play with Jamie Benn and Tyler Seguin on the top line for the Stars, who are 1-3-0 in their past four games after going 4-0-1 in their previous five. Radulov has nine points (two goals, seven assists) in his past six games.
The Avalanche are 2-4-0 in their past six games after going 8-0-1 in their previous nine. Colorado lost 6-4 to the Minnesota Wild at Pepsi Center on Friday.
Players to watch
Avalanche forward Nathan MacKinnon has 12 points (four goals, eight assists) in his past 10 games.
Stars forward Tyler Seguin has seven points (four goals, three assists) in his past six games.
They said it
"The first 10 minutes of the game were probably as bad as any this year. We just kept turning pucks over. We weren't getting rewarded for our chances, but we kept going. Again, it's a couple of defensive breakdowns on both of those goals to give them the lead in a span of a couple of minutes." -- Avalanche captain Gabriel Landeskog on the loss to the Wild on Friday
"We weren't playing our best hockey right there, so it was nice to get away and hit the reset button. [Colorado] played last night, so they should have their feel back while we're going to be looking for it in that first little bit [of the game]. It will be important to get off to a strong start because they're going to have their wheels going. It's a huge divisional game, so we'll try to take care of home ice." -- Stars goalie Ben Bishop
Avalanche projected lineup
Gabriel Landeskog -- Nathan MacKinnon -- Mikko Rantanen
Andre Burakovsky -- Nazem Kadri -- Joonas Donskoi
Valeri Nichushkin -- Pierre-Edouard Bellemare -- Matt Calvert
Tyson Jost -- J.T. Compher -- Matt Nieto
Samuel Girard -- Cale Makar
Ryan Graves -- Erik Johnson
Nikita Zadorov -- Ian Cole
Philipp Grubauer
Pavel Francouz
Scratched: Vladislav Kamenev, Mark Barberio
Injured: Colin Wilson (lower body)
Stars projected lineup
Jamie Benn -- Tyler Seguin -- Alexander Radulov
Mattias Janmark -- Roope Hintz -- Joe Pavelski
Andrew Cogliano -- Radek Faksa -- Blake Comeau
Denis Gurianov -- Jason Dickinson -- Corey Perry
Esa Lindell -- John Klingberg
Jamie Oleksiak -- Miro Heiskanen
Andrej Sekera -- Roman Polak
Ben Bishop
Anton Khudobin
Scratched: Justin Dowling, Taylor Fedun
Injured: Stephen Johns (post-traumatic headaches)
Status report
Bishop will start for the eighth time in 10 games.
Stat pack
Calvert had two goals against Minnesota on Friday. … Hintz (Nov. 1) and Faksa (Nov. 5) have each had a multigoal game against the Avalanche this season. … Dallas is 2-0-0 against Colorado this season and 7-2-0 in its past nine games against the Avalanche at American Airlines Center.