Anton Lindholm will celebrate his 23rd birthday by returning to the lineup when the Avalanche play Winnipeg at the Pepsi Center on Wednesday.
It will be the defenseman's first game since he sustained a broken jaw in a Nov. 4 game in Philadelphia when he was hit with a puck.
Here are the
GAME NOTES.
Lindholm will be paired with
Tyson Barrie.
"I had some rubber bands that shut my mouth for the first couple weeks," he said after the morning skate. "Luckily I got to take all the screws out, I don't have to wear the rubber bands anymore and I can eat normal food.
"I was on a liquid diet the first two weeks. It's hard to keep up calorie-wise. I had some shakes that contain like, 1,500 calories, but they’re not very good. Eating during the day on multiple occasions was the key."
Lindholm chose chicken and mashed potatoes when he finally was able to eat solid food. He also enjoys salmon.
Lindholm, who is 5-feet-11 and 191 pounds, will wear extra facial protection for a while and said he'll continue to block shots, a big part of his game.
“My kind of game is blocking shots, on PK and 5-on-5, so getting that first block out of the way and just keep reminding myself that I blocked a couple hundred pucks before that happened," he said.
Coach
Jared Bednar said he was impressed with Lindholm's play before he got hurt.
"His skating ability, his ability to defend and his commitment to defend, and also the edge that he plays with," Bednar said. "He's a physical guy for his size. He can close quickly on players, he can close out plays in the defensive zone. That's what he brings, he brings that tenacity to the game every night, very consistent."
To make room on the roster for Lindholm, who was activated from injured reserve, the Avalanche assigned defensemen
Chris Bigras and
Andrei Mironov to San Antonio and recalled
Duncan Siemens, who will be a healthy scratch against the Jets.
"It comes down to doing what's right for those two guys and trying to keep bringing along their development," Bednar said. "With Bigras, the strength of his game is his puck-moving ability. We saw it earlier in the year and how confident he was. He's a real receptive kid, a coachable kid. We kind of saw that slip away a little bit recently, and I think part of that was due to being in and out of the lineup and fighting for that job with Mironov. We want to get him some games, get him playing important minutes, get him back on the power play and build that confidence back up.
"Mironov has been out (of the lineup) more than in. It's been really good for him to be here. At the same time he hasn't played enough and we got to get him playing. It's his first time over in North America. Hopefully sending him down helps him along."
Bednar said Siemens had a good camp and "brings an element that we could use" on the back end.
"He's a tough guy to play against, he's hard in front of the net, he's physical, he has that edge to his game, that sandpaper to his game that we could use," Bednar said.
The lineup:
FORWARDS
Sven Andrighetto -- Nathan MacKinnon -- Mikko Rantanen
Tyson Jost -- Alexander Kerfoot -- J.T. Compher
Matt Nieto -- Carl Soderberg -- Blake Comeau
Gabriel Bourque -- Dominic Toninato -- Nail Yakupov
DEFENSE
Samuel Girard -- Erik Johnson
Anton Lindholm -- Tyson Barrie
Nikita Zadorov -- Mark Barberio
GOALIES
Semyon Varlamov
Jonathan Bernier
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