Avalanche at Canucks preview

AVALANCHE (40-18-8) at CANUCKS (34-26-6)
10 p.m. ET; ESPN+, SNP, ALT, NHL.TV

The Avalanche, who have won an Avalanche/Quebec Nordiques record nine consecutive games on the road, can become the eighth team in NHL history with a double-digit winning streak away from home. The League record for longest road winning streak is 12 games by the Detroit Red Wings in 2005-06.
Colorado, 7-0-2 in its past nine games and 15-3-2 in its past 20, trail the St. Louis Blues by two points for first place in the Central Division and Western Conference. The Blues play at the New Jersey Devils on Friday.
The Canucks, trying to avoid a five-game regulation losing streak, which would be their longest this season, are tied with the Nashville Predators, Winnipeg Jets and Arizona Coyotes for the second wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Western Conference and trail the Calgary Flames by three points for third place in the Pacific Division.

Players to watch

Avalanche forward Gabriel Landeskog has eight points (three goals, five assists) in a six-game point streak.
Canucks forward J.T. Miller has 12 points (four goals, eight assists) in his past seven games.

They said it

"Go through the names and it's some our best players, but guys being called up have actually scored a lot of big goals and done a great job, so we're very fortunate with how deep we are." -- Avalanche center Nathan MacKinnon on seven regulars being out because of injuries
"They are going to play their [butts] off for the rest of the year and I'm confident they're going to put themselves in the playoffs." -- Canucks coach Travis Green

Avalanche projected lineup

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

Canucks projected lineup

J.T. Miller -- Elias Pettersson -- Tyler Toffoli
Tanner Pearson -- Bo Horvat -- Loui Eriksson
Antoine Roussel -- Adam Gaudette -- Zack MacEwen
Tyler Motte -- Brandon Sutter -- Jake Virtanen
Alexander Edler -- Troy Stecher
Quinn Hughes -- Chris Tanev
Oscar Fantenberg -- Tyler Myers
Thatcher Demko
Louis Domingue
Scratched: Guillaume Brisebois, Jordie Benn
Injured:Jay Beagle (lower body), Micheal Ferland (concussion), Josh Leivo (knee), Tyler Graovac (lower body), Brock Boeser (rib), Jacob Markstrom (lower body)

Status report

Coach Jared Bednar said the decision to scratch Zadorov, a defenseman who was minus-3 in a 4-3 overtime loss against the Anaheim Ducks on Wednesday, was "performance based." … Dries and Connauton were recalled up from Colorado of the American Hockey League on Thursday and forward Martin Kaut was sent to the AHL. ... Myers returns after missing one game with an undisclosed injury.

Stat pack

Francouz is 6-0-1 with a 1.68 goals-against average, .945 save percentage and one shutout in his past seven starts. … Horvat has six points (three goals, three assists) in his past six games.