Open Thread: Colorado Avalanche vs. Boston Bruins (7:00 p.m.)

The Avs are coming off a tough road trip where they went 1-3 against Winnipeg, Buffalo, the same Boston Bruins, and Philadelphia, and normally you’d think a return home is cause for optimism. While there are some hopeful signs on the horizon (Valeri Nichushkin and Gabriel Landeskog skating for example), for tonight’s game there is little positivity one can find. Colorado is missing five of its top six forwards and two of its top four defensemen, as the team currently has six AHL forwards and two AHL defensemen in the lineup. It’s closer to a fact than a joke to say that the Colorado Eagles are playing their games at Ball Arena now.

The lineup is very much in flux, as Colorado recalled Sampo Ranta, Ben Meyers, Cal Burke (who is making his NHL debut!), and Andreas Englund from the Eagles while reassigning Alex Galchenyuk to Loveland. They also lost Jayson Megna to Anaheim who claimed him off waivers. It’s really anyone’s guess what these lines will look like, and there is a good chance that the third-period lines will be very different from the first-period ones. Here is the best guess at what the Colorado Avalanche will look like tonight.

Projected Lines

Alex Newhook (18) – Mikko Rantanen (96) – Charles Hudon (54)

Jean-Luc Foudy (93) – J.T. Compher (37) – Logan O’Connor (25)

Andrew Cogliano (11) – Ben Meyers (59) — Martin Kaut (61)

Dryden Hunt (22) – Cal Burke (68) – Sampo Ranta (75)

Cale Makar (8) – Devon Toews (7)

Erik Johnson (6) – Samuel Girard (49)

Andreas Englund (88) – Jacob MacDonald (26)

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