Brandon Saad won’t play Wednesday against Minnesota at Ball Arena, but it’s for a good reason. He’s with his wife, who is due to give birth to the couple’s second child.
"They went into the hospital last night, so we are hoping and praying that everything is going good there,” coach
Jared Bednar said after the morning skate. “She was due to have the baby this week, and it just so happened to land today so he will not play for us tonight."
Matt Calvert will take Saad’s place on the second line with
Nazem Kadri and
Joonas Donskoi as Bednar scrambles the line combinations.
Here are the
GAME NOTES.
Gabriel Landeskog moves back to the top line, where he was for part of Monday in the Avalanche’s 3-0 loss to Vegas.
Logan O’Connor returns to the lineup on the fourth line.
Philipp Grubauer will start for the 14th time in the team’s 16th game. He’s allowed two goals or fewer 10 times but will certainly need a break soon. The Avalanche have a heavy schedule beginning this weekend with back-to-back games Friday and Saturday in Arizona.
Wednesday’s game was originally scheduled Feb. 4 but was postponed due to COVID-19 protocol.
The Avalanche are 5-0-0 following a loss.
The Wild (9-6-0) trail the Avalanche (9-5-1) by one point and have won three in a row, outscoring opponents 14-4.
Rookie
Kaapo Kahkonen will start, having allowed four goals during the winning streak.
While the Avalanche have gone 0-for-16 on power plays in the past six games, the Wild have killed 17 of 18 penalties in their past six games.
The lineup:
FORWARDS
Gabriel Landeskog -- Nathan MacKinnon -- Mikko Rantanen
Matt Calvert -- Nazem Kadri -- Joonas Donskoi
Andre Burakovsky -- J.T. Compher -- Valeri Nichushkin
Tyson Jost -- Pierre-Edouard Bellemare -- Logan O’Connor
DEFENSE
Devon Toews -- Cale Makar
Samuel Girard -- Ryan Graves
Bowen Byram -- Conor Timmins
GOALIES
Philipp Grubauer
Adam Werner
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