Avalanche at Penguins preview

AVALANCHE (13-13-2) at PENGUINS (16-12-3)
7 p.m. ET; SN, TVA Sports, ATTSN-PT, ALT, NHL.TV

Hornqvist, who participated in Pittsburgh's morning skate Monday, left 49 seconds into the third period of a 4-3 loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs on Saturday after taking a puck to the side of his head. He has eight points (four goals, four assists) in his past eight games despite being held without a point in his past two.
Pittsburgh is 2-2-0 in its first four games of a five-game homestand. The Penguins have lost two of their past three games but are 5-2-0 in their past seven after going 2-4-1 in their previous seven.
The Avalanche are 1-4-0 in their past five games but are coming off a 7-3 win at the Florida Panthers on Saturday. Forward Matt Nieto had three points (one goal, two assists) in that game.

#

Players to watch

Avalanche forward Nathan MacKinnon has 18 points (six goals, 12 assists) in his past 12 games and five points (three goals, two assists) during a four-game point streak.
Penguins forward Sidney Crosby has 15 points (seven goals, eight assists) in his past nine games. He is second on the Penguins in goals (13) and points (32).

They said it

"We have to take another step forward here tonight. … We have to continue moving forward." -- Avalanche coach Jared Bednar
"I felt better today and hopefully I can play tonight. … We did all the protocols there. It was just that the pain was a little too much to go back out there." -- Penguins forward Patric Hornqvist

Avalanche projected lineup

Gabriel Landeskog -- Nathan MacKinnon -- Mikko Rantanen
Tyson Jost -- Alex Kerfoot -- J.T. Compher
Matt Nieto -- Carl Soderberg -- Blake Comeau
Sven Andrighetto -- Colin Wilson
Nikita Zadorov -- Erik Johnson
Patrik Nemeth -- Tyson Barrie
Samuel Girard -- Mark Barberio
Anton Lindholm
Jonathan Bernier
Semyon Varlamov
Scratched: Duncan Siemens, Gabriel Bourque
Injured: Vladislav Kamenev (arm), Nail Yakupov (illness)

Penguins projected lineup

Jake Guentzel -- Sidney Crosby -- Conor Sheary
Bryan Rust -- Evgeni Malkin -- Phil Kessel
Dominik Simon -- Riley Sheahan -- Patric Hornqvist
Carl Hagelin -- Carter Rowney -- Ryan Reaves
Brian Dumoulin -- Kris Letang
Olli Maatta -- Matt Hunwick
Ian Cole -- Chad Ruhwedel
Tristan Jarry
Casey DeSmith
Scratched: Kevin Czuczman, Josh Archibald
Injured: Matt Murray (lower body), Justin Schultz (lower body), Tom Kuhnhackl (upper body)

Status report

The Avalanche will dress 11 forwards and seven defensemen, with Yakupov missing a third straight game because of an undisclosed illness. … Murray participated in a second consecutive morning skate Monday but will not play against the Avalanche.

Stat pack

Landeskog needs two points to reach 300 in his NHL career. He has eight points (five goals, three assists) in his past eight games. … Malkin has at least one point in each of his five games since missing four games with an upper-body injury.