Avalanche at Red Wings preview

AVALANCHE (39-18-7) at RED WINGS (15-47-5)
7:30 p.m. ET; NHLN, FS-D, ALT, NHL.TV

Colorado is 14-3-1 in its past 18 games and can extend its Avalanche/Quebec Nordiques record road winning streak to nine games. The Avalanche are second in the Central Division, three points behind the first-place St. Louis Blues.
Goalie Michael Hutchinson, acquired in a trade with the Toronto Maple Leafs on Feb. 24, will make his Colorado debut.
Detroit has lost its past five games (0-4-1) and 19 of 22 (3-17-2). The Red Wings have scored one goal or fewer in nine of their past 15.

Players to watch

Avalanche forward Gabriel Landeskog has four points (two goals, two assists) in a four-game point streak.
Red Wings center Dylan Larkin has eight points (three goals, five assists) in his past six games.

They said it

"It's super important at this time of year to have a close-knit group, especially with a lot of new faces this season. Winning on the road seems to bring the group that much closer together, and coming into April, May and hopefully June, that's going to be important." --Avalanche forward Gabriel Landeskog
"When you integrate as many new people into the lineup as we have, there are times where four guys know what they are supposed to be doing and one doesn't. That's not his fault. We had a situation where (Dmytro Timashov) has played one game with us in Ottawa and still hasn't practiced with us because of his visa." -- Red Wings coach Jeff Blashill

Avalanche projected lineup

Vladislav Namestnikov -- Nathan MacKinnon -- Gabriel Landeskog
Matt Nieto -- J.T. Compher -- Joonas Donskoi
Valeri Nichushkin -- Tyson Jost -- Martin Kaut
Logan O'Connor -- Pierre-Edouard Bellemare -- Mark Barberio
Ryan Graves -- Cale Makar
Samuel Girard -- Erik Johnson
Ian Cole -- Nikita Zadorov
Michael Hutchinson
Pavel Francouz
Scratched: Vladislav Kamenev
Injured:Andre Burakovsky (upper body), Matt Calvert (lower body), Nazem Kadri (lower body), Philipp Grubauer (lower body), Mikko Rantanen (upper body), Colin Wilson (lower body)

Red Wings projected lineup

Tyler Bertuzzi -- Dylan Larkin -- Robby Fabbri
Sam Gagner -- Valtteri Filppula -- Anthony Mantha
Darren Helm -- Luke Glendening -- Frans Nielsen
Brendan Perlini -- Christoffer Ehn -- Dmytro Timashov
Patrik Nemeth -- Filip Hronek
Trevor Daley -- Alex Biega
Madison Bowey -- Gustav Lindstrom
Jimmy Howard
Jonathan Bernier
Scratched:Jonathan Ericsson, Dennis Cholowski, Justin Abdelkader
Injured: Danny DeKeyser (back), Filip Zadina (lower body), Adam Erne (hand)

Status report

Burakovsky is with the Avalanche but the forward did not skate Monday. … Erne, a forward, is expected to be out the rest of the season with a broken hand. … Timashov is expected to make his Red Wings home debut after finishing the process to get a work visa.

Stat pack

Hutchinson was 4-9-1 with an .886 save percentage in 15 games (11 starts) with the Maple Leafs. ... MacKinnon needs one assist for 300 in the NHL. … Howard is looking for his first win since Oct. 29. He's 0-18-2 with a 4.62 goals-against average and .871 save percentage in his past 20 games.