The Colorado Avalanche head into a big divisional back-to-back with the Dallas Stars carrying a lot of early-season baggage, and they’ll have to do it tonight without Cale Makar.
Colorado opens the set in Dallas before the clubs meet again tomorrow in Denver, and the timing matters. This matchup comes during tonight’s “NHL Frozen Frenzy,” with the Avalanche trying to put a rough loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs behind them and the Stars trying to steady a start that hasn’t matched expectations.
The Avalanche are 3-2-0 through five games and have been flying offensively, averaging 5.2 goals per game to lead the league. The flip side has been harder to ignore: they’ve also given up 17 goals, and the defensive and goaltending issues have been front and center.
Dallas has been almost the inverse. The Stars are 2-2-1, they’ve allowed only 8 goals, but they’ve managed just 11 of their own.
One team is scoring in bunches and leaking chances. The other is tightening things up but not producing enough offense.
The goaltending matchup tells that story clearly. MacKenzie Blackwood has opened the season as Colorado’s primary starter, appearing in three of the first four games, but the results haven’t been there. He’s 2-2 with an .867 save percentage and a 3.30 goals-against average.
Jared Bednar is sticking with him for the first game of the set, hoping Blackwood can get back on track against Jake Oettinger, who has been sharp. Oettinger is coming off two shutouts and has allowed just three goals in four starts.
Scott Wedgewood is expected to make his second start of the season against Casey DeSmith, who is also set for his second start.
Colorado and Dallas will both be dealing with absences in this two-game stretch. Mikko Rantanen is the only former Avalanche player slated to be in action. Matt Duchene will not play, as he remains out for three months while rehabbing from surgery to repair a core injury and is on long-term injury reserve.
Joel Kiviranta is also out, missing his third straight game with a lower-body injury. There is a chance he returns for Wednesday’s game.
The biggest absence for Colorado, though, is Makar. The Avalanche announced he will not play tonight and will return to Denver. It’s not injury-related; he’s heading home to support his wife, who is waiting for the arrival of their twins.
Puck drop is set for 6:45 p.m. MT, and the game will air nationally on ESPN.
Colorado’s projected lineup has Artturi Lehkonen, Nathan MacKinnon and Martin Necas together up front, with Gabriel Landeskog, Brock Nelson and Nazem Kadri on the next line. Jaden Schwartz is listed with Fedor Svechkov and T.J. Hughes, while Zachary L’Heureux, Nicolas Roy and Parker Kelly round out the forward group.
On defense, the pairs are Devon Toews with Sam Malinski, Brett Kulak with Noah Juulsen, and Josh Manson with Brent Burns. Bednar said those would be the defensive combinations and also said the team will wait and see about Makar’s availability for tomorrow night in Denver.
In Other News...
Stars Loss To Colorado Exposed An Early Problem They Can't Ignore
The Stars had enough positive individual moments in their 3-2 loss to Colorado to avoid sounding alarm bells about their talent, but the game still pointed to an issue they cannot let linger. Wyatt Johnston was out because of an illness, which pushed Sam Steel into a second-line role, and he handled the assignment well enough to keep Dallas from looking completely out of sorts up front.
Tyler Seguin continued to show how central he remains to the offense, scoring on the power play and later helping trim the deficit to one goal. Even so, the Stars spent too much of the night chasing the Avalanche after a costly penalty hurt their chances, and that kind of discipline lapse is the sort of thing that can erase otherwise encouraging work in a hurry. [Read more 🡒]
Avalanche Catch A Break In Dallas But Face A Bigger Concern
Wyatt Johnstons absence was the biggest lineup wrinkle for Dallas heading into this one, and it came with an immediate ripple effect for the Stars. The young center had been a fixture in the lineup since his NHL debut in October 2022, so his usual spot suddenly being empty forced Dallas to shuffle on the fly, with Sam Steel sliding to center and defenseman Kyle Capobianco being used as a forward.
For a team trying to manage the night around multiple absences across the matchup, Johnstons status was the one that changed the feel most sharply for Dallas. Colorado also came in without Cale Makar for family reasons, while Nashvilles Mavrik Bourque and Colorados Zachary LHeureux were out injured, but the Stars were the club dealing with the most notable adjustment at the top of its own lineup. [Read more 🡒]
Stars Suddenly Face An Offensive Test They Really Didnt Need
The Stars keep finding reasons to feel good about the way theyre playing, and Jake Oettinger added another one by drawing league-wide recognition for a dominant week in goal. The Dallas netminder has been steady enough to give his team a chance every night, which matters even more as the Central Division grind picks up and the schedule starts to bring the kind of opponents that force every detail to matter.
Still, the bigger concern around Dallas is up front, where the lineup has taken a hit at exactly the wrong time. Matt Duchenes absence leaves the Stars looking for answers in a part of the roster that had already been asked to carry plenty, and it gives the next stretch of games a different feel, including the rematch with Colorado that is already drawing extra attention from fans. [Read more 🡒]