Avalanche at Golden Knights preview

AVALANCHE (22-11-3) at GOLDEN KNIGHTS (20-13-6)
10 p.m. ET; ESPN+, ATTSN-RM, ALT, SN, NHL.TV

Fleury has 453 victories in 823 NHL games (453-257-78, two ties); Joseph had 454 in 943 appearances (454-352-6, 90 ties).
The Golden Knights are 4-0-1 in their past five games and 9-2-2 in their past 13. They're playing the second of back-to-back games after defeating the San Jose Sharks 3-1 at SAP Center on Sunday.
Pavel Francouz will start for the Avalanche, who are seeking their first win in three games after going 9-1-1 in their previous 11. Colorado has won its past three games against Vegas, including a 6-1 victory at T-Mobile Arena on Oct. 25.
Colorado forward Gabriel Landeskog is expected to play his 600th NHL game. Landeskog, Colorado's captain since 2012-13, was selected with the No. 2 pick in the 2011 NHL Draft; he has 429 NHL points (184 goals, 245 assists), all with the Avalanche.

Players to watch

Avalanche forward Nathan MacKinnon has nine points (three goals, six assists) in his past eight games.
Golden Knights defenseman Shea Theodore has two goals and six assists during a five-game point streak.

They said it

"Long way from good enough. I don't know what's going on right now. We just seem to be fragile mentally for some reason. I don't think we have reason to be." -- Avalanche captain Gabriel Landeskog
"One of the top teams in the league. They're very fast, very quick. That top line is an incredible line. ... They burned us here last time, so we've got to be ready to play tonight and slow them down a little bit." -- Golden Knights coach Gerard Gallant

Avalanche projected lineup

Gabriel Landeskog -- Nathan MacKinnon -- Mikko Rantanen
Andre Burakovsky -- Nazem Kadri -- Joonas Donskoi
Valeri Nichushkin -- Tyson Jost -- J.T. Compher
Matt Nieto -- Pierre-Edouard Bellemare -- Matt Calvert
Ryan Graves -- Samuel Girard
Nikita Zadorov -- Ian Cole
Anton Lindholm -- Erik Johnson
Pavel Francouz
Philipp Grubauer
Scratched:Mark Barberio, Vladislav Kamenev
Injured:Cale Makar (upper body), Colin Wilson (lower body)

Golden Knights projected lineup

Jonathan Marchessault -- William Karlsson -- Reilly Smith
Max Pacioretty -- Chandler Stephenson -- Mark Stone
Valentin Zykov
-- Paul Stastny -- Alex Tuch
William Carrier -- Tomas Nosek -- Ryan Reaves
Brayden McNabb -- Nate Schmidt
Nicolas Hague -- Shea Theodore
Nick Holden -- Deryk Engelland
Marc-Andre Fleury
Malcolm Subban
Scratched:Jon Merrill
Injured:Cody Glass (upper body), Cody Eakin (upper body)

Status report

Makar will miss his eighth consecutive game but is expected to return after the holiday break. … Glass remains day-to-day but could return Friday when the Golden Knights visit the Anaheim Ducks.

Stat pack

Rantanen has six points (four goals, two assists) in the past six games. … Karlsson has consecutive two-assist games after scoring five points in his previous eight. Marchessault has seven goals in his past 10 games.