Maple Leafs at Avalanche preview

MAPLE LEAFS (23-14-1) at AVALANCHE (17-16-3)
9 p.m. ET; ALT, SNO, NHL.TV

Pickard, who played three seasons with Colorado from 2014-17, was recalled from Toronto of the American Hockey League because Curtis McElhinney has a lower-body injury. Pickard had a 10-5-0 record with a 2.20 goals-against average and .919 save percentage in the AHL this season.
The Maple Leafs look to win for the fourth time in five games following a three-game losing streak. They will play the second half of a back-to-back following a 7-4 victory at the Arizona Coyotes on Thursday.
Goaltender Semyon Varlamov will make his fifth consecutive start for the Avalanche, who are 5-3-1 in their past nine games. Varlamov is 3-1-1 with 10 goals allowed in his past five starts.

Players to watch

Maple Leafs forward Mitchell Marner has nine points (three goals, six assists) in a four-game point streak. He has four assists in two games against Colorado.
Avalanche forward Mikko Rantanen has eight points (two goals, six assists) in a seven-game point streak.

They said it

"This is a big trip for us, we've had a real grind on the road. We'd like to finish it off right." -- Maple Leafs coach Mike Babcock, before the fourth game of Toronto's five-game road trip
"We definitely need a good start. When a team is playing back-to-back you want to come out fast. Maybe they'll be a little tired from travel or whatever the case may be, but it's up to us to play well if we're going to get the win tonight." -- Avalanche forward Nathan MacKinnon

Maple Leafs projected lineup

Zach Hyman -- Auston Matthews -- William Nylander
James van Riemsdyk -- Tyler Bozak -- Mitchell Marner
Patrick Marleau -- Nazem Kadri -- Leo Komarov
Matt Martin -- Dominic Moore -- Connor Brown
Morgan Rielly -- Ron Hainsey
Jake Gardiner -- Connor Carrick
Andreas Borgman -- Roman Polak
Calvin Pickard
Frederik Andersen
Scratched: Josh Leivo, Martin Marincin
Injured: Curtis McElhinney (lower body), Nikita Soshnikov (lower body), Nikita Zaitsev (lower body)

Avalanche projected lineup

Gabriel Landeskog -- Nathan MacKinnon -- Mikko Rantanen
Alex Kerfoot -- J.T. Compher -- Colin Wilson
Matt Nieto -- Carl Soderberg -- Blake Comeau
Sven Andrighetto -- Tyson Jost -- Gabriel Bourque
Nikita Zadorov -- Erik Johnson
Patrik Nemeth -- Mark Barberio
Samuel Girard -- Anton Lindholm
Semyon Varlamov
Jonathan Bernier
Scratched: Andrei Mironov, Nail Yakupov
Injured: Tyson Barrie (hand), Vladislav Kamenev (arm)

Status report

Kadri left in the first period Thursday after taking an elbow to the head and is questionable for Friday. Babcock said he didn't think it was a serious injury. … The Maple Leafs did not conduct a morning skate. … Mironov was recalled Thursday from San Antonio of the AHL.

Stat pack

Matthews needs two points for 100 in his NHL career ... Landeskog has eight points (four goals, four assists) in his past five games. … The Avalanche have killed 27 consecutive penalties in their past nine games.