Avalanche at Canadiens preview

AVALANCHE (27-16-3) at CANADIENS (19-22-6)
7:30 p.m. ET; TSN2, RDS, ALT, NHL.TV

Colorado won its 10th straight by defeating the Toronto Maple Leafs 4-2 at Air Canada Centre on Monday. It's the second-longest winning streak in franchise history. The longest is 12 games, from Jan. 10 to Feb. 7, 1999.
The Canadiens are 1-2-2 in their past five games and 3-7-2 in their past 12.

Players to watch

Avalanche forward Nathan MacKinnon has 19 points (eight goals, 11 assists) in his past 10 games and 26 points (12 goals, 14 assists) in his past 15. He is second in the League in scoring with 59 points (23 goals, 36 assists), two behind Tampa Bay Lightning forward Nikita Kucherov.
Canadiens forward Max Pacioretty has nine points (seven goals, two assists) in his past eight games after having four assists in his previous 12 games.

They said it

"For the most part, our scoring chances against are slowly coming down over the last couple months. That's where we want to get to, we want to be able to stay dangerous offensively and still do a good job defensively so we're not over-relying on our goalies." -- Avalanche coach Jared Bednar
"They're a really good hockey team, a really good challenge. It will be a good test for our group. It's one of those things where if you're not ready to play, you're going to get burned. But if you're up for it, it could be pretty rewarding when you're leaving the rink." -- Canadiens forward Brendan Gallagher

Avalanche projected lineup

Gabriel Landeskog -- Nathan MacKinnon -- Mikko Rantanen
Matt Nieto -- Carl Soderberg -- Blake Comeau
Dominic Toninato
-- Alex Kerfoot -- Nail Yakupov
Gabriel Bourque
-- J.T. Compher -- Tyson Jost
Nikita Zadorov -- Erik Johnson
Patrik Nemeth -- Mark Barberio
Samuel Girard -- Anton Lindholm
Jonathan Bernier
Andrew Hammond
Scratched: Colin Wilson, A.J. Greer, David Warsofsky
Injured: Sven Andrighetto (leg), Vladislav Kamenev (broken arm), Tyson Barrie (broken hand), Semyon Varlamov (groin)

Canadiens projected lineup

Max Pacioretty -- Paul Byron -- Charles Hudon
Alex Galchenyuk -- Jonathan Drouin -- Nicolas Deslauriers
Artturi Lehkonen -- Tomas Plekanec -- Brendan Gallagher
Jacob de la Rose -- Byron Froese -- Logan Shaw
Karl Alzner -- Jeff Petry
Victor Mete -- David Schlemko
Jordie Benn -- Jakub Jerabek
Carey Price
Antti Niemi
Scratched: Joe Morrow, Daniel Carr
Injured:Ales Hemsky (upper body), Shea Weber (lower body), Andrew Shaw (lower body), Phillip Danault (concussion-like symptoms)

Status report

Barrie and Andrighetto will not play, Bednar said Monday.

Stat pack

The Avalanche did not hold a morning skate. Colorado has trailed for 94 seconds during its winning streak, and held opponents to two goals or fewer eight times … Byron has five points (two goals, three assists) in a four-game point streak.