The Avalanche (7-1-1) are back on the road again, playing in Las Vegas on Friday in their sixth consecutive game away from the Pepsi Center.
They’ll be home Saturday to face Anaheim, their first home game since a 3-2 overtime win against Arizona on Oct. 12.
No morning skate Friday because of the early start (4 p.m. MT) for “Nevada Day… celebrated on the last day of each October to commemorate Nevada statehood on October 31, 1864.
Philipp Grubauer starts in goal for the eighth time and J.T. Compher replaces injured Mikko Rantanen at right wing on the top line with Gabriel Landeskog and Nathan MacKinnon.
MacKinnon has a point in each of the first nine games (five goals, seven assists) and can become the fifth player in NHL history to start a season with a point streak of at least 10 games.
He would join Wayne Gretzky (30 games in 1982-83; 51 games in 1983-84; 16 games in 1984-85), Rod Gilbert (14 games in 1972-73), Charlie Simmer (13 games in 1980-81), and Guy Lafleur (10 games in 1975-76; 10 games in 1976-77).
The lineup:
FORWARDS Gabriel Landeskog -- Nathan MacKinnon – J.T. Compher Joonas Donskoi -- Nazem Kadri -- Andre Burakovsky Colin Wilson -- Tyson Jost – Valeri Nichushkin Matt Nieto -- Pierre-Edouard Bellemare – Matt Calvert
DEFENSE Erik Johnson -- Samuel Girard Cale Makar – Ian Cole Ryan Graves -- Nikita Zadorov
GOALIES Philipp Grubauer Pavel Francouz