Avalanche coach
Jared Bednar isn't messing around.
A two-game losing streak was enough for him to scramble the line combinations, saying after practice Wednesday that players need to have a "sense of urgency" heading into Thursday's game against St. Louis at the Pepsi Center.
Jonathan Bernier will start in goal and defenseman
Patrik Nemeth, who practiced Wednesday, will return to the lineup after sustaining a shoulder injury Saturday in Dallas.
Here's how the lineup looked in practice:
FORWARDS
Tyson Jost -- Nathan MacKinnon -- Mikko Rantanen
Sven Andrighetto -- Matt Duchene -- Nail Yakupov
Gabriel Landeskog -- J.T. Compher -- Alexander Kerfoot
Colin Wilson/Matt Nieto -- Carl Soderberg -- Blake Comeau
DEFENSE
Nikita Zadorov -- Erik Johnson
Patrik Nemeth -- Tyson Barrie
Mark Barberio -- Chris Bigras
GOALIES
Jonathan Bernier
Semyon Varlamov
The biggest changes: Jost will move from third-line center to left wing on MacKinnon's line, and Kerfoot goes from second-line left wing to right wing on the third unit.
Bednar scrambled the lines in the third period Tuesday during the Avalanche's 4-1 loss in Nashville, and he liked how Jost played in his first game after missing two games because of a hyperextended knee and bone bruise.
"I feel we need a little bit of a change on Mack's line, and I think he's a guy that can help provide a spark there," Bednar said. "I think they enjoy playing together and they had a little chemistry even with Dutchie in the third period. We kind of had the blender going with the lines to try and give us a spark. Those two guys I liked together, Mack and Jost."
After outscoring teams 18-10 (with five empty-net goals) while winning four of the first five games, the Avalanche have been outscored 7-2 in their two-game losing streak.
"You certainly don't want that to linger," Bednar said. "That's one of the things we talked about today. Our mindset going into tomorrow night coming home here now, we've been real good at home ... the players having that recognition that we have to get back to that and there's got to be a little sense of urgency coming here to stop it so we don't let it get away from us."
Landeskog called the losing streak "a little blip in the road, a little bit of a setback against two divisional opponents."
The Avalanche also were 4-3-0 through seven games last year. They lost the next two games and didn't move above .500 for the rest of what turned into a disastrous season.
"You want to make sure you put an end to this thing as soon as you can," Landeskog said. "We know how important these division games are. We have to make sure we keep putting pucks at the net, have a bit of a killer instinct and spend more time in the O-zone than we did the last couple games."
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