Philipp Grubauer returns to the crease Monday when the Avalanche play in St. Louis to face the defending Stanley Cup champion Blues, attempting to stretch their point streak to nine games.
The Avalanche, 3-0-1 in the first four games of the trip and 7-0-1 overall, will head home after the game, presumably take Tuesday off and practice two days before playing in Las Vegas on Friday.
The Avalanche’s eight-game streak without a regulation loss is the NHL’s longest to begin a season since Montreal’s 10-game streak (9-0-1) in 2016-17. The Avalanche started with an 11-game streak (nine wins, two ties) in 2000-01 when they won their second Stanley Cup.
The Blues have lost four in a row (0-2-2) but are 7-1-0 in their past eight games against the Avalanche at home, 15-3-0 against them in the past 18 games there.
Colorado has been getting solid goaltending, but needs to cut down on the number and quality of scoring chances it’s been allowing. Pavel Francouz made 44 saves Saturday in a 6-2 win in Tampa after Grubauer stopped 40 shots Friday in a 5-4 overtime win against Florida.
The lineup:
FORWARDS Gabriel Landeskog -- Nathan MacKinnon -- Mikko Rantanen Joonas Donskoi -- Nazem Kadri -- Andre Burakovsky Matt Nieto -- Tyson Jost -- Colin Wilson Matt Calvert -- Pierre-Edouard Bellemare -- J.T. Compher
DEFENSE Erik Johnson -- Samuel Girard Cale Makar -- Nikita Zadorov Ian Cole -- Ryan Graves
GOALIES Philipp Grubauer Pavel Francouz