Three-headed monster back together for Blues rematch

Colorado’s first game of the season didn’t go very well as they looked out of sync and lethargic in a 4-1 loss to the St. Louis Blues. With the baseball-style series implemented for this season, the Avs will have a chance for revenge tonight at Ball Arena.

There wasn’t a lot to come out of morning skate as the same lineup will be in place for tonight’s matchup against the Blues, who add Mike Hoffman after he missed the first game due to visa issues but lose Sammy Blais, who was suspended two games for his illegal hit to the head of Devon Toews.

Philipp Grubauer starts in net once again and there will be one change at the forward spot as Gabe Landeskog and Andre Burakovsky switch places, bringing the ballyhooed three-headed monster back as Landeskog joins Nathan MacKinnon and Mikko Rantanen on the left side.

Burakovsky, who scored Colorado’s only goal two nights ago, moves from the left side to the right next to Nazem Kadri and Brandon Saad, who goes from the right wing to the left as Jared Bednar said he wanted Saad to play on his forehand side more.

Defensively, it’s the same lineup but only the Toews and Cale Makar pairing remains. Sam Girard moves to the right side to play next to Ryan Graves and Conor Timmins drops onto Ian Cole’s right side on the third pairing.

Of note, both Bowen Byram and Erik Johnson will be skating tomorrow at the practice facility while the rest of the team will have the day off as they prepare for their first road trip of the season.

Both Logan O’Connor and Shane Bowers were missing from the morning skate with no reason given by the club.

Tonight’s lineup

Landeskog – MacKinnon – Rantanen
Saad – Kadri – Burakovsky
Nichushkin – Compher – Donskoi
Jost – Bellemare – Calvert

Toews-Makar
Graves-Girard
Cole-Timmins

Grubauer