Game Preview: Colorado Avalanche at Pittsburgh Penguins

Who: Colorado Avalanche (16-13-0 32 points, 4th place Central Division) @ Pittsburgh Penguins (12-13-4, 28 points, 7th place Metropolitan Division)

When: 7 p.m. ET

How to Watch: Local broadcast on Altitude and SportsNet Pittsburgh, national stream on ESPN+

Pens’ Path Ahead: The Pens are spending most of the next week away from home, with trips to Montreal/Ottawa and Nashville/New Jersey sandwiching a home game against the Los Angeles Kings. First up is a Thursday away game against the Canadiens.

Opponent Track: The Avs have picked up wins in three of their last four games, most recently shutting out the New Jersey Devils by 4-0 in Newark on Sunday.

Season Series: The Pens and Avs won’t meet again until March in Denver.

Hidden Stat: Nathan MacKinnon may have just nine goals through 29 games, but that scoring rate is likely to increase soon. His 7.8 shooting percentage is uncharacteristically low given that he’s made over 10 percent of his shots for the last three seasons.

Getting to know the Avs

Projected lines

FORWARDS

Artturi Lehkonen - Nathan MacKinnon - Mikko Rantanen

Ross Colton - Casey Mittelstadt - Valeri Nichushkin

Joel Kiviranta - Parker Kelly - Logan O’Connor

Nikita Prischchepov - Ivan Ivan - Chris Wagner

DEFENSEMEN

Devon Toews - Cale Makar

Samuel Girard - Sam Malinski

Keaton Middleton - Calvin de Hahn

Goalies: Mackenzie Blackwood, Scott Wedgewood

IR: Gabriel Landeskog, Tucker Poolman, Miles Wood, Josh Manson

Potential Scratches: Jonathan Drouin, Nikolai Kovalenko

• Ross Colton, who returned on Saturday after missing 17 games with a broken foot, has provided a boost to the Avs’ second line over the last two contests.

• At the end of October, the Avs were missing five players from their top three lines (h/t Drew Livingstone.) Since then Colton has come back, Lehkonen has returned from offseason shoulder surgery and Nichushkin’s six-month suspension ended. Drouin is still week-to-week with an upper body injury, and Landeskog has yet to return from the knee issues that have sidelined him since the 2021-22 season, but this is the healthiest team the Avs have been able to ice in over a month.

Player stats

(via hockeydb)

Blackwood to the Avs

It was a busy Monday for the Avs, who traded starting netminder Alexandar Georgiev and rookie winger Nikolai Kovalenko to the San Jose Sharks in exchange for a package that included Sharks starter Mackenzie Blackwood.

Blackwood spent his first five NHL campaigns in New Jersey, but he lost his position in the Devils rotation after two sub-.895 seasons and was traded to the San Jose Sharks in the summer of the 2023.

He has marked a .909 save percentage and 3.00 GAA, with one shutout, in 19 games behind a weak Sharks defense this season. Georgiev, a 2024 All-Star, has meanwhile struggled with a career-worst .874 save percentage and 3.38 GAA in 18 appearances for the Avs. Both clubs will now hope a change of scenery is the answer to their netminders’ struggles.

The trade comes after the Avalanche dealt goaltender Justus Annunen for former Nashville Predators goaltender Scott Wedgewood on Nov. 30.

The club is hoping these two trades will fix an issue that has kept the Avs from earning a top spot in the Central so far this season. The team ranked 21st in the NHL with a .822 save percentage at 5v5 prior to the Wedgewood trade (h/t NHL.com).

Blackwood doesn’t have a particularly strong history against the Pens, with a 2-6-1 record in nine prior matchups. Wedgewood is meanwhile coming off a 25-save shutout against the Devils and could get a second straight start should the Avs decide to go with the hot goalie and set Blackwood up for an Avs debut against Utah later this week.

And now for the Pens

Projected lines (from Monday’s practice)

FORWARDS

Rickard Rakell - Sidney Crosby - Bryan Rust

Drew O’Connor - Evgeni Malkin - Cody Glass

Michael Bunting - Blaze Lizotte - Jesse Puljujarvi

Kevin Hayes - Noel Acciari - Anthony Beauvillier

DEFENSEMEN

Owen Pickering / Kris Letang

Marcus Pettersson / Erik Karlsson

Ryan Graves / Matt Grzelcyk

Goalies: Tristan Jarry (Alex Nedeljkovic started last night)

Potential Scratches: Ryan Shea, Matt Nieto, Philip Tomasino (injured)

IR: none

• Philip Tomasino remains day-to-day with an injury, per Mike Sullivan. He was in a no-contact jersey at Monday’s practice.
• Graves, a healthy scratch in eight of nine games heading into Saturday’s win over the Maple Leafs, looks set to be in the lineup for a second straight game tonight. He spent the first three seasons of his NHL career with the Avs before he was traded ahead of the Kraken expansion draft.
• The Pens are riding a four-game home win streak into tonight’s matchup.