Blues at Avalanche preview

BLUES (26-9-6) at AVALANCHE (23-13-4)
9:30 p.m. ET; NBCSN, NHL.TV

Matt Calvert replaces Andre Burakovsky at left wing on the second line with center Nazem Kadri and right wing Valeri Nichushkin. Right wing Mikko Rantanen moves to the third line with left wing Matt Nieto and center J.T. Compher. Burakovsky moves to right wing on the fourth line with left wing Tyson Jost and center Pierre-Edouard Bellemare.
The Avalanche are 1-4-1 in their past six games and 2-5-1 in eight after going 8-0-1 in their previous nine.
Goalie Jordan Binnington will start for the Blues, whose eight-game winning streak ended with a 3-1 loss to the Arizona Coyotes on Tuesday. Binnington is 6-0-0 with a 2.15 goals-against average and .921 save percentage in his past six games.

Players to watch

Blues forward David Perron has 10 points (four goals, six assists) in his past seven games.
Avalanche center Nathan MacKinnon has 14 points (six goals, eight assists) in his past 12 games.

They said it

"Teams are kind of looking at us as a measuring stick, so it's a challenge for us. We've done a good job of being able to understand that and prepare for it and be more consistent with the way we play." -- Blues center Ryan O'Reilly
"The reason you're mixing it up in the first place is because it hasn't been working at the level we would like it to. We haven't done what we've wanted to do in the last handful of games, so we're going to give it a different look and see how things work out." -- Avalanche coach Jared Bednar

Blues projected lineup

Oskar Sundqvist -- Ryan O'Reilly -- David Perron
Jaden Schwartz -- Brayden Schenn -- Ivan Barbashev
Alexander Steen -- Robert Thomas -- Tyler Bozak
Mackenzie MacEachern -- Jacob de la Rose -- Zach Sanford
Justin Faulk -- Alex Pietrangelo
Jay Bouwmeester -- Colton Parayko
Vince Dunn -- Robert Bortuzzo
Jordan Binnington
Jake Allen
Scratched:Troy Brouwer, Jordan Kyrou, Jake Walman
Injured:Sammy Blais (wrist), Carl Gunnarsson (upper body), Vladimir Tarasenko (shoulder)

Avalanche projected lineup

Gabriel Landeskog -- Nathan MacKinnon -- Joonas Donskoi
Matt Calvert -- Nazem Kadri -- Valeri Nichushkin
Matt Nieto -- J.T. Compher -- Mikko Rantanen
Tyson Jost -- Pierre-Edouard Bellemare -- Andre Burakovsky
Ryan Graves -- Cale Makar
Samuel Girard -- Erik Johnson
Ian Cole -- Nikita Zadorov
Philipp Grubauer
Pavel Francouz
Scratched:Mark Barberio, Vladislav Kamenev
Injured: Colin Wilson (lower body)

Status report

Barbashev moves from the fourth line to the second in place of Kyrou. … Sanford was a healthy scratch the past five games.

Stat pack

Schwartz has 11 points (four goals, seven assists) in his past seven games. … Schenn has eight points (three goals, five assists) in his past six. … St. Louis has won six straight against Colorado. … Landeskog has six points (four goals, two assists) in his past seven games.