Avalanche at Jets preview

AVALANCHE (28-18-4) at JETS (30-13-9)
7 p.m. ET; SN, ALT, NHL.TV

The Avalanche won 4-3 in overtime at the Edmonton Oilers on Thursday in their first game after losing MacKinnon for 2-4 weeks with an upper-body injury. Colorado is 1-2-1 in its past four games after a 10-game winning streak.
Goalie Semyon Varlamov will start after missing 10 games with a lower-body injury sustained in a 3-2 overtime win against the Jets on Jan. 2. Varlamov was the backup to Jonathan Bernier on Thursday.
Jets defenseman Dmitry Kulikov will return after missing three games with a concussion sustained in a 5-4 overtime win against the San Jose Sharks on Jan. 23. However, Winnipeg will be without forward Adam Lowry, who re-aggravated an upper-body injury in a 3-2 overtime loss to the Vegas Golden Knights on Thursday.
Goalie Connor Hellebuyck starts for the Jets. He's 8-2-3 with a 2.19 goals-against average and two shutouts n his past 13 starts.

Players to watch

Avalanche forward Mikko Rantanen has 17 points (five goals, 12 assists) in his past 12 games.
Jets forward Kyle Connor has three points (two goals, one assist) in his past two games.

They said it

"It's only been one game, but you can't replace a guy like that. It's a chance for us to show we're not just one player. We've got a deep team." -- Avalanche defenseman Tyson Barrie on playing without center Nathan MacKinnon
"Even though (MacKinnon) is out, they're still a dangerous team. They've still been playing really well lately. I think we've done a good job of rebounding after tough losses this year. Tonight is going to be another test for us to see where we are at." -- Jets forward Bryan Little

Avalanche projected lineup

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

Jets projected lineup

Jack Roslovic
-- Blake Wheeler -- Patrik Laine
Mathieu Perreault -- Bryan Little -- Nikolaj Ehlers
Brandon Tanev -- Andrew Copp -- Joel Armia
Kyle Connor -- Matt Hendricks --
Marko Dano
Josh Morrissey -- Tyler Myers
Toby Enstrom -- Dustin Byfuglien
Ben Chiarot -- Dmitry Kulikov
Connor Hellebuyck
Michael Hutchinson
Scratched:
Tucker Poolman
Injured: Mark Scheifele (upper body), Shawn Matthias (upper body), Steve Mason (concussion), Jacob Trouba (lower body), Adam Lowry (upper body)

Status report

Jets coach Paul Maurice said Scheifele could return on Friday against the St. Louis Blues. Scheifele has missed 14 games.

Stat pack

Landeskog has four points (two goals, two assists) in his past two games. … Perreault has nine points (five goals, four assists) in his past 10 games.