Kings at Avalanche preview

KINGS (40-27-7) at AVALANCHE (40-25-8)
9 p.m. ET; ALT, FS-W, NHL.TV

The Avalanche are one point ahead of the Kings, who hold the second wild card, and two points behind the Minnesota Wild, who are in third place in the Central Division. Colorado is 8-1-3 in its past 12 games and 15-2-1 in its past 18 at home.
The Kings are two points ahead of the St. Louis Blues for the second wild card and one point behind the Anaheim Ducks, who are third in the Pacific Division. Los Angeles is 1-0-1 in the first two games of a four-game road trip and 5-0-2 in its past seven road games.

Players to watch

Kings forward Anze Kopitar has 18 points (four goals, 14 assists) in his past 13 games.
Avalanche forward Nathan MacKinnon has 26 points (13 goals, 13 assists) during a 13-game point streak.

They said it

"We had a lot of success on the road early this year and I think it gave us confidence on the road. We've taken the stance where we really trust our team, we put guys in situations where we're going to trust our team game and it's really paid off for us." -- Kings coach John Stevens
"Every game from here on out has a lot of importance. It doesn't really matter who we're playing. We have to find a way to make sure we get points. It's kind of like our playoffs before the playoffs."-- Avalanche defenseman Erik Johnson

Kings projected lineup

Alex Iafallo -- Anze Kopitar -- Dustin Brown
Tanner Pearson -- Jeff Carter -- Tobias Rieder
Nate Thompson -- Adrian Kempe -- Tyler Toffoli
Kyle Clifford -- Michael Amadio -- Torrey Mitchell
Derek Forbort -- Drew Doughty
Alec Martinez -- Dion Phaneuf
Jake Muzzin -- Christian Folin
Jonathan Quick
Jack Campbell
Scratched:Andy Andreoff, Kevin Gravel, Paul LaDue
Injured:Trevor Lewis (upper body)

Avalanche projected lineup

Gabriel Landeskog -- Nathan MacKinnon -- Mikko Rantanen
Tyson Jost -- J.T. Compher -- Sven Andrighetto
Matt Nieto -- Vladislav Kamenev -- Blake Comeau
Colin Wilson -- Alex Kerfoot -- Gabriel Bourque
Patrik Nemeth -- Erik Johnson
Nikita Zadorov -- Tyson Barrie
Duncan Siemens -- Samuel Girard
Semyon Varlamov
Jonathan Bernier
Scratched:Mark Alt, Anton Lindholm, Spencer Martin, Dominic Toninato, David Warsofsky, Nail Yakupov
Injured: Mark Barberio (upper body), Andrew Hammond (concussion), Carl Soderberg (ill)

Status report

Lewis took part at the end of the morning skate and listed as day to day ... Bernier will back up Varlamov after missing five games with a concussion.

Stat pack

Doughty has 10 points (one goal, nine assists) in his past seven games ... Barrie has 15 points (six goals, nine assists) during an 11-game point streak ... Rantanen has 15 points (four goals, 11 assists) during a seven-game point streak.