Kings at Avalanche preview
Los Angeles tries for second straight win, Colorado looks to rebound in Stadium Series
by Rick Sadowski / NHL.com Independent Correspondent
KINGS (20-33-5) at AVALANCHE (33-17-6)
8 p.m. ET; NBC, SN360, TVAS2, AFN|sports2
The Game
The Colorado Avalanche will try for their sixth win in seven games when they play the Los Angeles Kings in the 2020 Navy Federal Credit Union NHL Stadium Series at Falcon Stadium at the U.S. Air Force Academy on Saturday.
The Avalanche's five-game winning streak ended Thursday with a 3-2 loss to the Washington Capitals. They are 8-2-0 in their past 10 games.
The Kings will attempt to win consecutive games for the first time since Dec. 15-17 when they defeated the Detroit Red Wings and Boston Bruins.
The Kings ended a five-game losing streak with a 5-3 win against the Calgary Flames on Wednesday. They are 3-12-1 in 2020.
Players to watch
Kings forward Alex Iafallo has seven points (six goals, one assist) in his past 10 games.
Avalanche forward Nathan MacKinnon has eight points (two goals, six assists) in a six-game point streak.
They said it
"[The altitude] will come into play for our team, there's no doubt about it. Our guys felt it today. We don't train at this level and we haven't played at this elevation where [Colorado] has. I have a son that plays at (the University of Denver) and they played here at [Colorado College] last year and even for them the added 800 feet or whatever it is was a factor." -- Kings coach Todd McLellan
"This is fun, but we still need to win. We'll enjoy it now but come [Saturday] it's the same intensity. It's kind of weird having this kind of loose atmosphere this late in the season at such an important time. We have a team to chase (the St. Louis Blues) and a team right behind us (the Dallas Stars)." -- Avalanche center Nathan MacKinnon
Kings projected lineup
Alex Iafallo -- Anze Kopitar -- Tyler Toffoli
Adrian Kempe -- Jeff Carter -- Martin Frk
Trevor Moore -- Blake Lizotte -- Dustin Brown
Austin Wagner -- Michael Amadio -- Trevor Lewis
Alec Martinez -- Drew Doughty
Joakim Ryan -- Sean Walker
Kurtis MacDermid -- Matt Roy
Jonathan Quick
Calvin Petersen
Scratched: Ben Hutton, Nikolai Prokhorkin, Derek Forbort
Injured: None
Avalanche projected lineup
Andre Burakovsky -- Nathan MacKinnon -- Mikko Rantanen
Gabriel Landeskog -- J.T. Compher -- Joonas Donskoi
Valeri Nichushkin -- Pierre-Edouard Bellemare -- Matt Calvert
Matt Nieto -- Tyson Jost -- Vladislav Kamenev
Ryan Graves -- Cale Makar
Samuel Girard -- Erik Johnson
Nikita Zadorov -- Ian Cole
Philipp Grubauer
Pavel Francouz
Scratched: Mark Barberio, T.J. Tynan
Injured: Nazem Kadri (lower body), Colin Wilson (lower body)
Status report
The Avalanche recalled Tynan, a forward, from Colorado of the American Hockey League.
Stat pack
The game will be played at 6,621 feet above sea level, a record for an NHL regular-season outdoor game, surpassing the previous figure of 5,200-foot elevation from the 2016 game at Coors Field in Denver. … Martinez needs two points for 200 in the NHL. … Burakovsky has four points (two goals, two assists) in his past two games. … Rantanen has a goal in each of his past two games.