Avalanche at Kings preview

AVALANCHE (35-18-7) at KINGS (22-34-5)
10:30 p.m. ET; FS-W, ALT, NHL.TV

Colorado is coming off a 1-0 victory against the Anaheim Ducks on Friday and has won two straight after going 0-2-1 in its previous three games. The Avalanche are three points behind the St. Louis Blues for first place in the Central Division and Western Conference.
Los Angeles has won three of its past four games, including a 3-1 win against the Avalanche in the 2020 Navy Federal Credit Union NHL Stadium Series on Feb. 15.

Players to watch

Avalanche center Nathan MacKinnon has 12 points (three goals, nine assists) in his past 10 games and is two assists shy of 300 in the NHL.
Kings center Anze Kopitar has eight assists during a four-game point streak. He is the first Kings player with multiple assists in four straight games since Wayne Gretzky did so from Jan. 3-8, 1996.

They said it

"We're just trying to keep it going. We feel like we're playing good hockey. Even that outdoor game and the Washington game before, we weren't getting the results, but we think we're playing good hockey and we're just trying to keep it rolling." -- Avalanche forward J.T. Compher
"I think that was more kind of our style of game. It was really defensive, we clogged it up to the neutral zone. They still had a good amount of chances, but we tried to limit their Grade-A (chances) as much as possible." -- Kings defenseman Sean Walker on defeating the Avalanche in the Stadium Series

Avalanche projected lineup

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

Kings projected lineup

Alex Iafallo -- Anze Kopitar -- Dustin Brown
Adrian Kempe -- Gabriel Vilardi -- Martin Frk
Austin Wagner -- Blake Lizotte -- Trevor Moore
Trevor Lewis -- Michael Amadio -- Tim Schaller
Derek Forbort -- Drew Doughty
Kurtis MacDermid -- Sean Walker
Ben Hutton -- Matt Roy
Jonathan Quick
Cal Petersen
Scratched:Joakim Ryan, Nikolai Prokhorkin
Injured:Jeff Carter (lower body)

Status report

O'Connor, a forward, was recalled from Colorado of the American Hockey League on Saturday. … Carter did not practice as the Kings held an optional skate on Saturday. … Quick is expected to start for the Kings. Petersen was the only goalie at practice and stayed out for extra work.

Stat pack

Colorado is 4-4-1 in the second game of a back-to-back. … Nichushkin needs one point for 100 in the NHL. … Quick is 18-6-1 with a 2.27 goals-against average and .914 save percentage in 26 games against the Avalanche.