The Avalanche will be facing old friend
Semyon Varlamov when they meet the New York Islanders on Monday in the second game of their three-game road trip.
GAME NOTES
The former Avalanche goalie is having an excellent season after signing a four-year, $20 million contract as an unrestricted free agent July 1. He’s gone 14-5-3 with a 2.40 goals-against average and .920 save percentage.
"I had a great eight years playing for the Colorado Avalanche," Varlamov told the Islanders website. "Colorado is a beautiful state, there are a lot of things to do. What can I say, it's probably one of the best spots in the United States to live, so I really enjoyed it there. The team was good and the organization was really good to me, really supportive. I always think positive about the time I spent in Colorado."
The Avalanche were willing to let Varlamov go because they felt
Pavel Francouz was ready to make the jump to the NHL as
Philipp Grubauer’s backup after one season with the Colorado Eagles of the AHL. Finances also played a part as Varlamov was coming off a five-year, $29.5 million contract ($5.9 million per), and Francouz is on a one-year, $950,000 deal.
Francouz, who will start against the Islanders, has an 11-3-1 record with a 2.41 goals-against average and .927 save percentage. But he needs to have a bounce-back game after his most recent start when he allowed five goals on 32 shots in a 6-4 loss to Minnesota on Dec. 27.
Mikko Rantanen had his second career hat trick and Grubauer made 28 saves Saturday in the Avalanche’s 5-2 win in New Jersey.
Nathan MacKinnon had two assists to stretch his point streak to three games (three goals, five assists) and
Samuel Girard added two assists, giving him eight assists in his past three games.
MacKinnon was named the NHL first star of the week after collecting those eight points. He had two goals against Winnipeg and four points (one goal, three assists) against St. Louis before his two-assist game against the Devils.
Winnipeg’s
Mark Scheifele was named second star after he had three goals and five assists in three games. Columbus’
Zach Werenski was third star after he had five goals in three games.
Avalanche defenseman
Cale Makar is a Last Men In candidate to join MacKinnon on the Central Division team for the 2020 NHL All-Star Game. He’s second among NHL rookies in scoring with 32 points (nine goals, 23 assists) in 34 games and sixth among all defensemen.
Voting ends Friday at 9:59 p.m. MT.
Fans can vote at NHL.com/Vote or on a mobile interactive ballot on the NHL app.
The lineup:
FORWARDS
Gabriel Landeskog -- Nathan MacKinnon -- Joonas Donskoi
Valeri Nichushkin -- Nazem Kadri – Matt Calvert
Matt Nieto -- J.T. Compher -- Mikko Rantanen
Tyson Jost -- Pierre-Edouard Bellemare -- Andre Burakovsky
DEFENSE
Ryan Graves -- Cale Makar
Samuel Girard -- Erik Johnson
Nikita Zadorov -- Ian Cole
GOALIES
Pavel Francouz
Philipp Grubauer
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