Avalanche lines and defensive pairings for season opener against Wild

Here we go finally, opening night at the Pepsi Center, Avs-Wild, 7 p.m.

Here are the lines and defensive pairs for the Avs:

Landeskog-MacKinnon-Rantanen

Kerfoot-Jost-Wilson

Nieto-Soderberg-Bourque

Dries-Compher-Calvert

D

Girard-Johnson

Zadorov-Barrie

Nemeth-Cole

Varlamov in goal

THOUGHTS: Well, I guess we’ll see how the Colin Wilson experiment starts to play out. Jared Bednar seems optimistic it’ll work out, but I need a bit more visual proof. …. Big night for Sheldon Dries. The 24-year-old undrafted 5-9 forward will start, playing with Compher and Calvert. … Bednar said he really wants the Soderberg line to be their checking presence. Why didn’t he put Calvert there instead of Bourque? Bednar said he wants a bit more of a heavy presence defensively and on the forecheck, that he likes Bourque’s game in that regard. … Devan Dubnyk in goal for the Wild. … Matt Hendricks, the former Av, will be in the lineup to add some toughness for the Wild. … Mark Barberio draws the short straw on defense. He’ll be the Avs’ lone healthy scratch.

Here’s a bit of video and sound:

The captain:

https://t.co/yI4r73EIiO

— Adrian Dater (@adater) October 4, 2018

Audio:

MacKinnon:

Kerfoot: