Lindholm beginning to believe he's "capable of playing in this league"

The Colorado Avalanche come into their game against the Columbus Blue Jackets tonight on a three-game winning streak and winners of eight of their last 12 overall.

The team’s recent success has put them into the thick of the wild-card playoff race in the Western Conference. The Avalanche are battling some injury issues as they head into tonight’s game. Goaltender Semyon Varlamov and forwards Sven Andrighetto and J.T. Compher are all on the shelf as they face various minor injuries that are set to keep them out likely beyond this weekend’s games and into the team’s “bye week.”

Facing a fast Columbus team, head coach Jared Bednar opted not to make any lineup tweaks beyond the obvious of starting Jonathan Bernier in net tonight as he replaces the injured Varlamov. One of the players who might have seen his name on the scratch list tonight is defenseman Anton Lindholm.

“I feel like I’ve picked up where I left off last year,” Lindholm said. “I’m starting to maybe believe more in myself that I’m able and capable of playing in this league.

When you’re knocking on the door, it’s a bit surreal in the beginning. Even though you’re young, you need to prove yourself. I feel like I am proving to myself I am capable of playing here.”

Lindholm will be making his 25th appearance this season but has yet to register a single point. That lack of offense is something he is eager to change.

“Be more involved, be more comfortable with the puck up top of the offensive zone, get shots through,” Lindholm said of the areas he’s focusing on for improvement.

When asked why Bednar was comfortable keeping Lindholm in the lineup, he mentioned Lindholm’s physicality as a reason to keep him in the lineup. It’s not so much him hitting people but finding effective ways to hit.

“I’m not the biggest frame out there,” Lindholm said laughing while nodding at Nikita Zadorov’s adjacent locker. “I feel like my skating is a huge part of me being able to play physical. I probably surprise guys who don’t know that I’m there. I close quickly and make sure they don’t know I’m coming. Along with pretty good stick work and my feet, my balance.”

As Lindholm finds his way, he is on the opposite side of establishing himself as teammate Nathan MacKinnon, who is now in the upper-echelon of the league’s scorers. The dynamic MacKinnon has done nothing short of ramp up his power level to at least 9,000 en route to his 48 points in 39 games. As his teammate, Lindholm can’t help but laugh when recalling some of MacKinnon’s ridiculous highlights.

“Some plays he makes some, stuff he does out there, you just sit on the bench and laugh,” Lindholm said shaking his head. “It just looks unrealistic for a guy to do that at such high speed with such control. It’s cool to watch up close.”

As the Blue Jackets come calling inside the Pepsi Center tonight, they’re surely looking to make MacKinnon and Co. a little less cool to watch for the home crowd.

The lineup against Columbus is expected to be the same, meaning a projected lineup of:

Landeskog MacKinnon Rantanen

Nieto Soderberg Comeau

Greer Kerfoot Yakupov

Bourque Jost Wilson

Zadorov Johnson

Nemeth Barberio

Girard Lindholm

Bernier

Andrew Hammond