Jets at Avalanche preview

JETS (21-15-3) at AVALANCHE (23-12-4)
8 p.m. ET; ALT2, TSN3, NHL.TV

Perreault missed six games with a concussion sustained in a 7-3 win against the Philadelphia Flyers on Dec. 15. The forward, who has 12 points (six goals, six assists) in 33 games, will play right wing on a line with left wing Gabriel Bourque and center Adam Lowry.
Connor Hellebuyck will start for the Jets, who are 0-2-1 in their past three games and 1-4-1 in their past six games.
Philipp Grubauer will start for the Avalanche, who are 1-3-1 in their past five games and 2-4-1 in seven after going 8-0-1 in their previous nine.

Players to watch

Jets forward Mark Scheifele has 16 points (eight goals, eight assists) in his past 12 games.
Avalanche forward Nathan MacKinnon has 12 points (four goals, eight assists) in his past 11 games and needs one goal to tie Matt Duchene (178) for eighth place in Colorado/Quebec Nordiques history.

They said it

"I just want to help the boys win a hockey game. It's not fun to watch. I want to be out there and help the guys out. Hopefully I can do that today, bring energy in the room, energy on the ice."-- Jets forward Mathieu Perreault
"[The Jets] are a really good hockey team. Big, strong forwards, they go to the net hard. They're scoring goals in the paint, they put bodies there all the time. They've got good speed and skill. This is an important game." -- Avalanche coach Jared Bednar

Jets projected lineup

Kyle Connor -- Mark Scheifele -- Patrik Laine
Nikolaj Ehlers -- Blake Wheeler -- Jack Roslovic
Gabriel Bourque -- Adam Lowry - Mathieu Perreault
Jansen Harkins -- Nicholas Shore - Mason Appleton
Josh Morrissey -- Tucker Poolman
Luca Sbisa -- Neal Pionk
Anthony Bitetto -- Nathan Beaulieu
Connor Hellebuyck
Laurent Brossoit
Scratched: Carl Dahlstrom, Joona Luoto, Logan Shaw
Injured:Andrew Copp (upper body), Dmitry Kulikov (upper body), Bryan Little (ear)
Suspended:Dustin Byfuglien

Avalanche projected lineup

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

Status report

Donskoi and Rantanen will switch lines. Donskoi will play on the top line with Landeskog and MacKinnon. Rantanen will be on the second line with Burakovsky and Kadri.

Stat pack

Wheeler has 13 points (five goals, eight assists) in his past 12 games and will play his 900th NHL game. … Laine has nine points (six goals, three assists) in his past nine games. … Cole has four points (one goal, three assists) in a four-game streak. … Calvert has four goals in his past four games.