Good morning from the Pepsi Center, where the C0lorado Avalanche will play another game that doesn’t count tonight, against the Dallas Stars.

The big news? Matt Duchene will be in the lineup (pictured above), likely on a line with Alex Kerfoot and Nail Yakupov. It will be interesting to see how the crowd greets Duchene tonight, eh? I’m sure he’ll get good applause, but it won’t shock me if there are a few boos mixed in there too.

Nikita Zadorov, as BSN Denver reported last night, has arrived in Denver. His immigration paperwork is all worked out, but he will not be in the lineup tonight. We’ll get our first Pepsi Center look at Andrei Mironov. He looked real good in the Burgundy-White game Sunday.

I’ll also be keeping a close eye on Chris Bigras tonight. This is a crucial game for him in his quest to finally secure a full-time Avs roster spot.

A reminder: AJ and I will break down the game with a postgame podcast. Click here for the place to subscribe to the BSN Avalanche Podcast.