Avalanche at Panthers preview

AVALANCHE (5-0-1) at PANTHERS (2-2-2)
7 p.m. ET; FS-F, ALT, NHL.TV

MacKinnon, who sustained a leg injury during a 3-2 overtime loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins on Wednesday, did not take part in the morning skate.
Colorado will be looking to extend its season-opening point streak to seven games. The Avalanche won their first five games before losing against the Penguins. Colorado is the only team without a regulation loss.
The Panthers are home after going 1-0-2 on a three-game road trip. They ended a three-game losing streak when they rallied from down 4-1 for a 6-4 win against the New Jersey Devils at Prudential Center on Monday.

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Players to watch

Avalanche rookie defenseman Cale Makar has six assists in six games. He had a chance to become the second NHL defenseman to begin his regular-season career with a six-game point streak but was held without a point against the Penguins.
Panthers forward Evgenii Dadonov has a four-game goal streak and seven points (four goals, three assists) in his past four games.

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They said it

"His leg is pretty sore. He got hit there the other night by (Penguins forward Patric) Hornqvist. I give him a lot of credit. I know he was hurting on the bench the whole game and he battled through and ends up getting us a big goal in the third period, has a really good third period for us." -- Avalanche coach Jared Bednar on forward Nathan MacKinnon
"Finding that consistency and having the puck a little bit more from start to finish, we'd like to find out how good we could be." -- Panthers coach Joel Quenneville

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Avalanche projected lineup

Gabriel Landeskog -- Nathan MacKinnon -- Mikko Rantanen
Joonas Donskoi -- Nazem Kadri -- Andre Burakovsky
Colin Wilson -- Tyson Jost -- J.T. Compher
Matt Calvert -- Pierre-Edouard Bellemare -- Matt Nieto
Erik Johnson -- Samuel Girard
Cale Makar -- Ian Cole
Ryan Graves -- Nikita Zadorov
Philipp Grubauer
Pavel Francouz
Scratched:Kevin Connauton, Vladislav Kamenev, Mark Barberio, Valeri Nichushkin
Injured: None

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Panthers projected lineup

Jonathan Huberdeau -- Aleksander Barkov -- Evgenii Dadonov
Mike Hoffman -- Vincent Trocheck -- Brett Connolly
Frank Vatrano -- Henrik Borgstrom -- Denis Malgin
Dryden Hunt -- Noel Acciari -- Colton Sceviour
Mike Matheson -- Aaron Ekblad
MacKenzie Weegar -- Anton Stralman
Keith Yandle -- Josh Brown
Sergei Bobrovsky
Sam Montembeault
Scratched: Jayce Hawryluk, Mark Pysyk
Injured: None

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Status report

Bednar said Kadri would center the top line if MacKinnon doesn't play and Compher would move up to the second line. … Zadorov will be back in the lineup after being scratched against the Penguins. … Quenneville said there could be lineup changes but did not specify.

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Stat pack

Colorado's 42 hits against Pittsburgh were the most the Avalanche have had in a game since they had 42 against the Toronto Maple Leafs on Dec. 11, 2016. … Huberdeau has six points (one goal, five assists) during a five-game point streak. … Florida leads the NHL with 38.2 shots per game.