Makar a game-time decision, NHL announces schedule changes

The Avs take on the Vegas Golden Knights in game two of their four-game set tonight. The news of the morning skate was the availability of Cale Makar, who missed Sunday’s 1-0 loss to Vegas.

Head coach Jared Bednar said Makar was a game-time decision and if he doesn’t play, the lineup will be the same as Sunday. If Makar does play, it seems fair to expect Makar replaces Dennis Gilbert, who played a team-low nine minutes on Sunday.

If Makar does not play, the lineup should look something like this:

Saad-MacKinnon-Rantanen
Burakovsky-Kadri-Donskoi
Nichushkin-Compher-O’Connor
Dries-Bellemare-Megna

Toews-Byram
Gilbert-Timmins
MacDonald-Graves

Grubauer
Werner

Adam Werner is slated to be the backup for the immediate future as Hunter Miska entered the COVID Protocol yesterday. In need of a third goaltender, the Avs recalled Peyton Jones from the Eagles.

As Miska was going on the list, Tyson Jost and Gabe Landeskog are preparing to come off it. While he was never on it for some unknown reason, Kiefer Sherwood was also out with COVID-related issues and will join Jost and Landeskog in skating for the first time tomorrow.

Sam Girard is still going through testing and is not allowed on the ice until Sunday at the earliest.

The other Avalanche news of the day came when the NHL announced massive schedule changes involving 15 teams. Because I know you don’t really care about the full list of league-wide changes, here are the Avs-related changes:

• Game #173, Minnesota at Colorado, originally scheduled for Feb. 4, is now scheduled for Wednesday, Feb. 24 at 9 p.m. ET
  Game #321, Colorado at Arizona, originally scheduled for Feb. 25, is now scheduled for Friday, Feb. 26 at 9 p.m. ET
  Game #568, Anaheim at Colorado, originally scheduled for March 31, is now scheduled for Tuesday, March 16 at 9 p.m. ET
  Game #209, Arizona at Colorado, originally scheduled for Feb. 9, is now scheduled for Wednesday, March 31 at 9:30 p.m. ET
  Game #225, Arizona at Colorado, originally scheduled for Feb. 11, is now scheduled for Monday, April 12 at 9 p.m. ET
  Game #182, Colorado at St. Louis, originally scheduled for Feb. 6, is now scheduled for Wednesday, April 14 at 9 p.m. ET
• Game #191, Colorado at St. Louis, originally scheduled for Feb. 7, still has no replacement date yet. It will be announced later.