Sven Andrighetto will be in the Avalanche lineup Friday, but
Nikita Zadorov will be a healthy scratch against the defending Stanley Cup champion Washington Capitals at the Pepsi Center.
The
GAME NOTES.
Andrighetto, who missed six games with a lower-body injury, will be on the fourth line with
Vladislav Kamenev and
Gabriel Bourque.
Patrik Nemeth will replace Zadorov and be paired with
Mark Barberio. Zadorov played a season-low 7:22 Wednesday against Boston and was benched for the third period.
Forward
Matt Nieto is out with a lower-body injury.
Coach
Jared Bednar hasn’t been particularly happy with Zadorov for much of the season. The 6-feet-5 defenseman has a goal, two assists and 21 penalty minutes in 18 games, along with a team-high 43 hits.
Zadorov took an interference penalty in the second period Wednesday, 27 seconds after
Mikko Rantanen scored on a power play when the Avalanche closed to 3-2. They killed the penalty and scored four times in the third period for a 6-3 win.
As for Andrighetto, who has one goal in six games this season, he adds another forward with speed.
"More speed, quickness and pace to our game,” Bednar said. “He is a guy we rely on for secondary scoring and helping create chances. I think it will be good to watch him play with (Kamenev), who has played a couple good games here recently. We will miss (Nieto), but at the same time it's nice to have another speedy guy back in the lineup."
The Avalanche have won two games in a row following a five-game (0-4-1) losing streak.
"I feel like we have been playing really well, especially the last two games, more to our identity,” Andrighetto said. “Using our speed and being hard on the puck, we want to keep doing that for sure. Our speed, we were moving our legs even if we didn't have the puck.
"We were creating turnovers early on, right when they get the puck. We didn't even give them a chance to create anything, get the puck back as soon as we could and it's a big difference."
Philipp Grubauer will start against his former Washington teammates, who will be without injured forwards
Evgeny Kuznetsov and
T.J. Oshie (both have head injuries). Goalie
Braden Holtby (upper-body injury) will miss his third game in a row.
The Avalanche lineup:
Gabriel Landeskog -- Nathan MacKinnon -- Mikko Rantanen
Tyson Jost -- Alexander Kerfoot -- Colin Wilson
Sheldon Dries -- Carl Soderberg -- Matt Calvert
Sven Andrighetto -- Vladislav Kamenev – Gabriel Bourque
Samuel Girard -- Erik Johnson
Ian Cole -- Tyson Barrie
Mark Barberio – Patrik Nemeth
Philipp Grubauer
Semyon Varlamov
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