Monday night will be a fantastic matchup between the Colorado Avalanche and the Edmonton Oilers. As the Oilers fight for first seed in the Pacific, the Avalanche are just trying to stay healthy. The Avalanche recalled defenseman Jack Ahcan from the Colorado Eagles to fill the gap on the blue line. This will also be the first game that head coach Jared Bednar will not be behind the bench after his injury on Saturday. Expect a mix-up on the blue line to adjust for Ahcan, but the Avs still need to come out of this unscathed with two more games before the playoffs.

Colorado Avalanche (52–16–11, 115 pts)

As the season winds down for the Avalanche, it appeared everything went wrong on Saturday against the Vegas Golden Knights. A stray puck knocked Jared Bednar out of the game, and Colorado lost Josh Manson to injury. There were some bright spots in the contest, though. Devon Toews kept the power play going without Nazem Kadri and Cale Makar. Nick Blankenburg also found the back of the net in his ninth game as an Avalanche. The Avs forced the Golden Knights to overtime, but just could not hold on for the win, losing 3–2. As much as the fans initially loved the Nordiques sweaters, with a 2–3–2 record, they just want to move on.

Projected Lines

Artturi Lehkonen – Nathan MacKinnon – Gabriel Landeskog
Valeri Nichushkin – Brock Nelson – Martin Necas
Ross Colton – Nic Roy – Joel Kiviranta
Parker Kelly – Jack Drury – Logan O’Connor

Devon Toews – Sam Malinski
Brett Kulak – Brent Burns
Nick Blankenburg – Jack Ahcan

Mackenzie Blackwood
Scott Wedgewood

Edmonton Oilers (40–30–10, 90 pts)

The Oilers cling to second place, given the Pacific Division’s current weakness this season. On Saturday, Edmonton battled the Los Angeles Kings, who are fighting for their playoff lives. The Kings had all the reasons to fight for the win. It would keep them in the wild card, and it was Anže Kopitar’s last regular season home game. The contest turned into a goalie battle with Artemi Panarin scoring the only goal in the game in the first. With 90 points, Edmonton is tied with Anaheim, yet it holds more regulation wins. They will be out for blood on Monday against the Avs.

Projected Lines

Vasily Podkolzin – Connor McDavid – Matthew Savoie
Max Jones – Ryan Nugent-Hopkins – Kasperi Kapanen
Colton Dach – Josh Samanski – Trent Frederic
Curtis Lazar – Adam Henrique – Jack Roslovic

Mattias Ekholm – Evan Bouchard
Darnell Nurse – Connor Murphy
Jake Walman – Ty Emberson

Connor Ingram
Tristan Jarry

Game Details

Time: 7:30 p.m. MT

Watch: Altitude, Altitude+, KTVD (My20), SNW (EDM), TVAS (EDM), ESPN+ (Out of Market)

Listen: Altitude Sports Radio 92.5 FM/AM 950