The Colorado Avalanche will start a four-game road trip against the Toronto Maple Leafs on Sunday morning. Both clubs are recovering from embarrassing losses at home, so both will look to bounce back. The Avalanche are lacking a little direction without the leadership of their captain right now. Besides that, Colorado’s best goaltender Scott Wedgewood did not travel with the team for parental leave. The Avalanche have recalled rookie Isak Posch to fill the bench for the moment.

Colorado Avalanche (34–6–9, 77 pts)

The Avalanche have struggled as of late, losing four of their last seven games. All of which were at home. The last game they played the Philadelphia Flyers, hoping to get back on track against a team with a worse record. That was not the case, as the Flyers came into town hungry for a victory themselves. The Flyers scored twice in the first period, setting the tone for the entire game. The Avs’ depth showed up with goals from Parker Kelly and Victor Olofsson. After that, it was all Flyers from there. Philly scored five goals to the Avs’ only goal by Cale Makar. This included a shorthanded goal by Owen Tippet to complete the hat-trick. Colorado fell 7–3 as they lost their second game in regulation at home.

Projected Lines

Victor Olofsson – Nathan MacKinnon – Martin Necas
Artturi Lehkonen – Brock Nelson – Valeri Nichushkin
Taylor Makar– Jack Drury – Gavin Brindley
Zakhar Bardakov – Parker Kelly – Joel Kiviranta

Samuel Girard – Cale Makar
Josh Manson – Brent Burns
Jack Ahcan – Sam Malinski

Mackenzie Blackwood
Isak Posch

Toronto Maple Leafs (24–18–9, 57 pts)

The return of Mitch Marner to Toronto brought revenge for the 28-year-old as he played the Maple Leafs on Saturday. Leafs fans did not give their former star a warm welcome, but the Vegas Golden Knights spoke up for him. The Leafs lost to the Golden Knights 6–3 as the Vegas depth stepped up. Goals from Keegan Kolesar and Braeden Bowman helped secure a lead before Mark Stone put a bow on it with back-to-back goals. Toronto has had some issues scoring, with Auston Matthews not producing at his usual pace, besides goaltending injuries.

Projected Lines

Bobby McMann – Auston Matthews – Max Domi
Matias Maccelli – John Tavares – Matthew Knies
Easton Cowan – Nicolas Roy – Nicholas Robertson
Steven Lorentz – Scott Laughton – Calle Jarnkrok

Jake McCabe – Oliver Ekman-Larsson
Morgan Rielly – Brandon Carlo
Simon Benoit – Troy Stecher

Joseph Woll
Anthony Stolarz

Game Details

Time: 11:30 a.m. MT

Watch: Altitude, Altitude+, TSN4 (TOR), TVAS (TOR), NHL Network (Out of Market Only), ESPN+ (Out of Market Only)

Listen: Altitude Sports Radio 92.5 FM/AM 950