Three Avs Returning Against San Jose

After being without its starting goaltender and two of its top goal scorers for the last handful of games, the Colorado Avalanche will get some key members of the squad back tonight for its matchup against the San Jose Sharks.
Forwards Mikko Rantanen and Joonas Donskoi and goaltender Philipp Grubauer will rejoin the team after all three players saw time on the league's COVID-protocol list.
Grubauer was placed in protocol on April 14 and Donskoi missed Colorado's outing that day with symptoms. The entire team went into a five-day pause on April 16 when Donskoi was also placed in the NHL's protocol and Rantanen was added to the list due to contact tracing during the break.
"Donskoi, Rantanen and Grubauer will all play tonight, but starting today forward I am not going to give out our lines or our starter. I don't see an advantage for me to do that going down the stretch here," said head coach Jared Bednar. "These are must-win games for us, and I don't feel like I should be giving San Jose extra time to prepare, or any opponent for that matter, for our team. I am going to stop giving our lineup in pregame skate, you're just going to have to wait until game time."

Grubauer and Rantanen got back on the ice earlier this week while Donskoi's resumed skating on Thursday. Donskoi, who last played on April 12, has appeared in 42 of Colorado's 47 outings this year and has 15 goals and 13 assists.
"Kind of trying to get back at it, get my skating back and all that, getting some touches and I am good to go," said Donskoi. "I think it's good to just jump back in and I think playing games, there is no better way getting back to it than playing games, so I am good to go."

Rantanen is second on the Avs with 52 points (26 goals, 26 assists) this year and his 26 goals are the fourth-most in the league.
Grubauer has played in 34 contests this season and owns a 25-8-1 record. Despite missing time, his 25 wins are the second-most in the league and his 2.00 goals-against average is the second-best among all goalies that have played in 10 or more games.
While the three skaters have been out, the team has dropped its past three outings, but the Avs are still 10-4-0 in their last 14 games, 18-4-2 in their previous 24 contests and 22-6-3 in the last 31.
"The base of our play has to come a little bit now again--we went through a stretch where it was really good. It changes with guys missing out of the lineup, you have top guys out of the lineup, a lot of scoring out of the lineup, we will get some of that back here tonight, but I don't know how those guys are going to be after their break," said Bednar. "Not easy to come back in and pick up where you left off, but those guys have been putting in some good work, including Grubi, so I think all that helps.

"You get your starter back in the net, you get some scoring back in the lineup, you become a more confident team and you can cover up for some of the mistakes you make. The margin of error got smaller, it should stretch out here again for us, but our goal is to try to play the perfect game every night here down the stretch to get geared up for the playoffs."
Since the Avs returned to action on April 22, they went 1-3-0 on a four-game trip but there were positives to the way they played in their last outing on Wednesday at the Vegas Golden Knights, a 5-2 loss.
"I think guys battled really well, it's not easy games on the road against St. Louis and Vegas, those are really good hockey teams and especially playing on the road," Rantanen said of what he saw while out of the lineup. "We were pretty banged up, there were other guys out too including myself and Donny, Grubi, everybody who is out, so it's not easy for the team especially on the road. But, I think guys battled pretty well. I think last game we played really good against Vegas, just couldn't find a way, but I am just focusing for tonight and the next game."

With the three players returning to game action this evening, that lowers Colorado's injured list to seven. Bowen Byram (upper body) and Logan O'Connor (lower body) are each week-to-week after suffering setbacks in their recoveries, while Matt Calvert (upper body) and Jacob MacDonald (lower body) are both week-to-week as well with their ailments. Forward Brandon Saad is also out for weeks with a lower-body injury. Goaltender Pavel Francouz (lower body) is out for the remainder of the year, and Erik Johnson (upper body) could return deep into the playoffs.
"We still have some injuries, but we are playing a real good lineup here tonight," said Bednar. "I expect a little bit of rust from all of our guys coming back. I don't think you are going to see guys coming back in the lineup and playing their best game of the year, and that's what we are trying to demand and the standard we are trying to set for all of our guys. Those guys get a little leeway because they haven't been in those game situations for quite some time and their training has been a limited.
"My job will be to manage their minutes a little bit if need be, have conversations with them during periods, after periods to see how their legs are feeling. And if there is some line shuffling, it will probably be because maybe Mikko can't handle 22 minutes, maybe Donskoi can't do 17, but we will just make those adjustments on the fly. We have other guys who have stepped up in their absence, and we can shrink their minutes a little bit as the game goes."

COMING HOME

Tonight's contest is Colorado's first at home since April 12. The club is in a stretch that sees it playing 14-of-17 on the road from April 5-May 10.
The Avalanche is 12-0-1 in its last 13 games at Ball Arena, the fourth-longest home point streak in franchise history. The Avs have won five straight on home ice, their third different home win streak of five or more games in 2020-21.
Colorado has nine contests remaining in the regular season, with four of those outings coming at Ball Arena.

NOTEABLES

Tonight's outing opens Colorado's eighth back-to-back of the season. The Avs are a combined 10-1-3 in back-to-backs with a 6-1-0 mark in the first game and a 4-0-3 record in the second. They have swept each of their last two consecutive-game affairs: April 2-3 versus the St. Louis Blues and April 11-12 at the Anaheim Ducks and at home against the Arizona Coyotes. Colorado has two more back-to-backs in May.
Nathan MacKinnon has a 15-game point streak (nine goals, 17 assists), a new career high and the longest streak in the NHL this season. It's the longest streak by an Avalanche player since Paul Stastny's 20-game run in 2006-07. In fact, MacKinnon's 15-game streak is the third longest by a Colorado player (since 1995-96).
The Avs are 7-0-0 on Fridays this season and 5-1-2 on Saturdays.
The Avalanche is 8-4-0 in April after finishing a league-best 12-2-3 in March, which set franchise records for wins and points in a month. Colorado's eight wins and 16 points are the franchise's most ever in April.
Cale Makar has 35 points (five goals, 30 assists) in 35 games this season, the only NHL defenseman to average a point-per-game in 2020-21.
The Avs are 3-1-0 against the Sharks this year with a 2-0-0 mark at home.