Carolina Hurricanes at Colorado Avalanche: Lineups and Game Discussion

It’ll be a battle of natural disasters in Denver Saturday night, as the Hurricanes square off with the Avalanche in a battle of two the league’s best teams.

The Canes are currently first in the Metro and second in the Eastern Conference with 104 points. The Avalanche currently have a two-point lead over the Florida Panthers in the President’s Trophy race, sitting at 114 points.

As far as seeding goes, the Avalanche are playing for nothing at this point. They have a 15-point lead over Calgary for the top seed in the West, though obviously the President’s Trophy matters. For the Canes, there’s still a tight race for the Metro with the Rangers, who have matched the Canes in points with one more game played.

Frederik Andersen is expected to get the start for the Hurricanes Saturday night, while Darcy Kuemper will get the nod for the Avs.

Here’s how the team’s will lineup for Saturday’s heavyweight battle:

Carolina Hurricanes

Andrei Svechnikov - Sebastian Aho - Seth Jarvis
Max Domi - Vincent Trocheck - Teuvo Teravainen
Nino Niederreiter - Jordan Staal - Jesper Fast
Jordan Martinook - Jesperi Kotkaniemi - Martin Necas

Jaccob Slavin - Tony DeAngelo
Brady Skjei - Brett Pesce
Ian Cole - Ethan Bear

Frederik Andersen
Antti Raanta

Injuries and Scratches: Steven Lorentz (healthy), Brendan Smith (healthy), Derek Stepan (healthy)

Colorado Avalanche

Andre Burakovsky - Nathan MacKinnon - Mikko Rantanen
Artturi Lehkonen - J.T. Compher - Valeri Nichushkin
Alex Newhook - Nico Sturm - Nicolas Aube-Kubel
Andrew Cogliano - Ben Meyers - Logan O’Connor

Devon Toews - Cale Makar
Samuel Girard - Josh Manson
Jack Johnson - Bowen Byram

Darcy Kuemper
Pavel Francouz

Injuries and Scratches: Erik Johnson (healthy), Kurtis MacDermid (healthy), Darren Helm (healthy), Ryan Murray (upper body), Gabriel Landeskog (knee), Nazem Kadri (upper body)