Avalanche at Blues preview

AVALANCHE (27-17-3) at BLUES (29-18-3)
8 p.m. ET; FS-MW, ALT2, NHL.TV

Schwartz missed the past 20 games with a right ankle injury; The Blues went 9-10-1 without him in the lineup.
Goaltender Carter Hutton will start his fifth straight game for the Blues. Jonathan Bernier will make his ninth straight start for the Avalanche.
Colorado lost 4-2 at the Montreal Canadiens on Tuesday to end a 10-game winning streak, the second-longest in its history (12 games, Jan. 10-Feb. 7, 1999).

Players to watch

Avalanche center Nathan MacKinnon has 20 points (nine goals, 11 assists) in his past 11 games.
Blues center Brayden Schenn has seven points (three goals, four assists) in his past six games after getting five points (one goal, four assists) in his previous 13.

They said it

"I don't think it bothered us. I think our attitude is pretty much the same throughout the win streak. Every streak comes to an end. We were prepared for that to happen. It wasn't a good game for us against Montreal and it's going to be a chance for us to respond tonight." -- Avalanche defenseman Erik Johnson
"I've made some strides and I feel like I'm ready to go again. Today was a day that I thought could be an option. You don't really want to make any guarantees until I see if I could go through practice, go through the right steps." -- Blues left wing Jaden Schwartz

Avalanche projected lineup

Gabriel Landeskog -- Nathan MacKinnon -- Mikko Rantanen
Matt Nieto -- Carl Soderberg -- Blake Comeau
Dominic Toninato
-- Alex Kerfoot -- Nail Yakupov
Gabriel Bourque -- Tyson Jost -- A.J. Greer
Nikita Zadorov -- Erik Johnson
Patrik Nemeth -- Anton Lindholm
Samuel Girard --
David Warsofsky
Jonathan Bernier
Andrew Hammond
Scratched: None
Injured:Semyon Varlamov (groin), Tyson Barrie (hand), Sven Andrighetto (leg), Vladislav Kamenev (arm), Colin Wilson (illness), J.T. Compher (illness), Mark Barberio (lower body)

Blues projected lineup

Ivan Barbashev
-- Paul Stastny -- Vladimir Tarasenko
Jaden Schwartz -- Brayden Schenn -- Alexander Steen
Vladimir Sobotka -- Patrik Berglund --
Tage Thompson
Scottie Upshall -- Kyle Brodziak -- Dmitrij Jaskin
Joel Edmundson -- Alex Pietrangelo
Jay Bouwmeester -- Colton Parayko
Vince Dunn -- Robert Bortuzzo
Carter Hutton
Jake Allen
Scratched:Carl Gunnarsson, Chris Thorburn, Oskar Sundqvist
Injured: Zach Sanford (shoulder)

Status report

Warsofsky will make his season debut. Greer will play for the first time since Jan. 15. ... To make room for Schwartz, the Blues placed forward Magnus Paajarvi on waivers.

Stat pack

The Blues are 7-0-3 in their past 10 games against the Avalanche. ... Rantanen has 14 points (five goals, nine assists) the past nine games and 23 points (eight goals, 15 assists) the past 18 games. Bernier is 9-1-0 with a .951 save percentage in his past 10 starts. ... Hutton is 3-1-0 with five goals allowed his past four starts.