Avalanche at Jets preview

AVALANCHE (7-5-3) at JETS (8-5-1)
8 p.m. ET; TSN3, ALT 2, NHL.TV

A five-game losing streak would be longest for the Avalanche since a seven-game streak (0-7-0) from March 18-29, 2017. Forward Tyson Jost, who has missed four games with a head injury will return to the Colorado lineup.
The Jets play their first game since losing 4-2 against the Florida Panthers at the NHL Global Series in Helsinki on Nov. 2.
Winnipeg has alternated losses and wins in its past five games and has scored two goals in four of its past five games.

Players to watch

Avalanche forward Mikko Rantanen has eight points (one goal, seven assists) in his past five games and leads the NHL in scoring with 24 points (five goals, 19 assists).
Jets forward Blake Wheeler has 12 points (one goal, 11 assists) in an eight-game point streak.

They said it

"We're trying. We've watched a lot of video, watched a lot of coverage stuff and hopefully, we can clean some of it up." -- Avalanche forward Nathan MacKinnon on their losing streak
"The biggest mistake that we can make is not paying attention to the other three lines. [The MacKinnon line] is going to get their chances. Our A-guys are going to get their chances, too. You've got to play well defensively against the others." -- Jets coach Paul Maurice

Avalanche projected lineup

Gabriel Landeskog -- Nathan MacKinnon -- Mikko Rantanen
Sheldon Dries -- Alexander Kerfoot -- Colin Wilson
Matt Nieto -- Carl Soderberg -- Matt Calvert
Marko Dano -- Vladislav Kamenev -- Tyson Jost
Samuel Girard -- Erik Johnson
Ian Cole -- Tyson Barrie
Nikita Zadorov -- Patrik Nemeth
Semyon Varlamov
Philipp Grubauer
Scratched:Mark Barberio, Gabriel Bourque
Injured: Sven Andrighetto (lower body), J.T. Compher (head)

Jets projected lineup

Nikolaj Ehlers -- Mark Scheifele -- Blake Wheeler
Kyle Connor -- Bryan Little -- Mathieu Perreault
Brandon Tanev -- Adam Lowry -- Patrik Laine
Jack Roslovic -- Andrew Copp -- Nic Petan
Josh Morrissey -- Jacob Trouba
Ben Chiarot -- Dustin Byfuglien
Joe Morrow -- Tyler Myers
Connor Hellebuyck
Laurent Brossoit
Scratched: Brendan Lemieux, Dmitry Kulikov
Injured: None

Status report

Bourque will be a healthy scratch with Jost's return.

Stat pack

MacKinnon has four points (two goals, two assists) in his past two games. … Landeskog has six points (three goals, three assists) in his past five games. … Scheifele has nine points (four goals, five assists) in his past seven games. … Byfuglien has six points (one goal, five assists) in a four-game point streak. … Laine has four goals in his past two games.