Preview: Fortified Avalanche Welcome Capitals Tonight trucc

Val Nichushkin, and Jonathan Drouin, and Miles Wood, oh my!

One final game at home commences tonight before the Colorado Avalanche embark on a road-heavy schedule for the rest of the calendar year. This contest will be the 12th game at Ball Arena thus far in the 2024-25 season and the Avalanche have used home ice to their advantage to stay afloat in the standings while they waited for reinforcements to arrive.

The Washington Capitals for their part has enjoyed a strong start to their season as they sit in third place in the Metropolitan Division but have lost three of their last five and hope to start their road tip on the right foot with a win.

Colorado Avalanche
There is no bigger storyline for the home team as the heavily anticipated return of Valeri Nichushkin from his six-month suspension, which finally is set for tonight. Coincidentally, both Jonathan Drouin and Miles Wood are expected to draw into the Avalanche lineup as they were both activated off injured reserve yesterday. With healthy forwards at their disposal the Avalanche lineup will look quite different from the one they defeated the LA Kings with on Wednesday night with only a guess at the anticipated exact lines.

Projected Lineup

Jonathan Drouin-Nathan MacKinnon-Mikko Rantanen

Artturi Lehkonen-Casey Mittelstadt-Val Nichushkin

Joel Kiviranta-Parker Kelly-Logan O’Connor

Miles Wood-Ivan Ivan-Nikolai Kovalenko

Devon Toews-Cale Makar

Samuel Girard-Josh Manson

Calvin de Haan-Sam Malinski

Washington Capitals
Tonight the Capitals will get their first look at Lars Eller following their blockbuster aquisition of the former Avalanche forward from the struggling Pittsburgh Penguins. We are also on Ovi watch as Alex Ovechkin has come out of the gates hot scoring 10 goals in 15 games to begin the season.

Projected Lineup

Alex Ovechkin-Dylan Strome-Aliaksei Protas

Connor McMichael-Pierre-Luc Dubois-Tom Wilson

Andrew Mangiapane-Lars Eller-Jakub Vrana

Brandon Duhaime-Nic Dowd-Taylor Raddysh

Jakob Chychrun-John Carlson

Martin Fehervary-Matt Roy

Rasmus Sandin-Trevor van Riemsdyk

Goaltenders
Justus Annunen occupied the starter’s net at morning skate. For the visitors a starter was not already announced but Washington has been starting and seen more success from Logan Thompson, who has yet to lose in regulation, and seems the smart bet this get this start.

Extra: Check out former Colorado Eagles reporter Katie Florio’s interviews setting up tonight’s matchup from the Washington side.