Morning skate notebook: Will he or won't he?

There will be some suspense prior to the Avalanche’s game tonight with the San Jose Sharks.

Mikko Rantanen, one third of the Avalanche’s top line, will be a game-time decision, coach Jared Bednar said a few minutes ago from here at the Pepsi Center.

Rantanen has a lower-body ailment, Bednar said, suffered some time in the game at Vancouver last week. If Rantanen can’t go? Colin Wilson will move up to right wing on a line with Gabe Landeskog and Alexander Kerfoot.

Looks like Tyson Jost, Nail Yakupov and J.T. Compher is the second line if Rants can’t go, while the fourth line would be Dominic Toninato, Gabriel Bourque and A.J. Greer.

That’s a bit of a strange choice, moving Wilson up to the top line, in my opinion, but we’ll see what happens. The guy is capable of scoring goals, or at least he used to be, when given top-six minutes.

Jonathan Bernier will start in net against a Sharks team that, too, has to play without one of their best players for a while. The ageless Joe Thornton had knee surgery recently and is out. Thornton always kills the Avs, so not seeing him won’t bother anyone partisan to the Burgundy and Blue.

Erik Johnson talked about what it’s going to take to win without Nathan MacKinnon and, now, maybe Rantanen:

“We’re not going to out-talent teams right now, that’s for sure,” Johnson said. “So, when you lose your two best forwards, you know, it’s definitely a little bit of a blow. But throughout the course of the year we’ve found ways to outwork teams. We lose a little bit of offensive firepower, but it’s time for guys to step up and pick up the slack. Hopefully, we can show that we’re more than just two guys.”