Canadiens at Avalanche

CANADIENS (15-15-2) at AVALANCHE (17-11-2)

Canadiens projected lineup
Cole Caufield -- Nick Suzuki -- Kirby Dach
Juraj Slafkovsky -- Jonathan Drouin -- Josh Anderson
Evgenii Dadonov -- Christian Dvorak -- Mike Hoffman
Anthony Richard -- Jake Evans -- Joel Armia
Joel Edmundson -- Kaiden Guhle
Jordan Harris -- Johnathan Kovacevic
Arber Xhekaj -- Chris Wideman
Jake Allen
Sam Montembeault
Scratched: Michael Pezzetta
Injured: Brendan Gallagher (lower body), Sean Monahan (lower body), David Savard (upper body), Mike Matheson (lower body)
Avalanche projected lineup
Artturi Lehkonen -- J.T. Compher -- Mikko Rantanen
Alex Newhook -- Evan Rodrigues -- Valeri Nichushkin
Denis Malgin -- Ben Meyers -- Logan O'Connor
Jacob MacDonald -- Kurtis MacDermid -- Martin Kaut
Samuel Girard -- Cale Makar
Devon Toews -- Erik Johnson
Brad Hunt -- Andreas Englund
Alexandar Georgiev
Pavel Francouz
Scratched: None
Injured: Gabriel Landeskog (knee), Darren Helm (hip), Bowen Byram (lower body), Shane Bowers (upper body), Nathan MacKinnon (upper body), Josh Manson (lower body), Andrew Cogliano (upper body)
Status report
Each team held an optional morning skate. … Canadiens head coach Martin St. Louis confirmed Allen will be the starting goalie. … Colorado Coach Jared Bednar said Tuesday that Cogliano, a forward, will miss at least two games. … Bednar said Wednesday that MacKinnon, a forward, is on track in his recovery but is still a couple weeks from returning. … Malgin will make his debut after being acquired in a trade with the Maple Leafs on Monday.