Joonas Donskoi and
Andre Burakovsky will switch places Saturday when the Avalanche play Minnesota at the Pepsi Center.
Donskoi, who scored two goals Thursday in the season-opening 5-3 win against Calgary, will move to the second line with
Tyson Jost and
Nazem Kadri. Burakovsky will drop to the third line with
Matt Nieto and
J.T. Compher.
These are the only lineup changes.
The
GAME NOTES.
"I think you look at the game (Donskoi) had the other night, he deserves to be rewarded," coach
Jared Bednar said after the morning skate. "I think you go back to exhibition and similar lineups in exhibition, Jost with Donskoi was really good. Same thing with Burakovsky down a little bit.
"It will be fluid throughout the year, but I think Nieto and Compher can complement Burky's skill set. And I think adding another hard-working guy that is all over the puck to help Kadri and Jost, I think will be a good idea, too, so we will see how it plays out."
Matt Calvert will play his 500th NHL game. He made his NHL debut on Jan. 7, 2011 with Columbus against Anaheim.
“It’s pretty special,” said Calvert, who is in his second season in Colorado. "If you had told me 12 years ago that I’d have 500 NHL games, I’m not sure I would have believed you. I’m just going to go out there and enjoy it. You take care of your body and work hard and try and play as long as you can.”
Calvert set a career high last season with 26 points (11 goals, 15 assists) in 82 games. He had four assists in eight playoff games, missing four games because of an upper-body injury.
More of a role player as a fourth liner and penalty killer, Calvert would like to chip in even a little more offensively. He got off to a good start with a sweet pass to Compher for a goal Thursday.
“It was my goal to get off to a good start, to do a little more offensively,” said Calvert, who didn’t get his first point last season (an assist) until the ninth game against Philadelphia. “In the past it took me a while to get into a season. I really tried to focus on (this) preseason to get my game going and try to treat them like regular-season games.”
The lineup:
FORWARDS
Gabriel Landeskog -- Nathan MacKinnon -- Mikko Rantanen
Tyson Jost -- Nazem Kadri – Joonas Donskoi
Matt Nieto -- J.T. Compher – Andre Burakovsky
Matt Calvert -- Pierre-Edouard Bellemare -- Valeri Nichushkin
DEFENSE
Samuel Girard -- Erik Johnson
Nikita Zadorov -- Cale Makar
Ryan Graves -- Conor Timmins
GOALIES
Philipp Grubauer
Pavel Francouz