Erik Johnson's return from his two-game suspension gives the Avalanche eight healthy defensemen, so Andre Benoit will join Ryan Wilson as a healthy scratch for Sunday's game against Tampa Bay.
"It's not an easy decision because they're all playing really well," coach Patrick Roy said of sitting Benoit.
Benoit has only missed one previous game, Nov. 16 against Florida because of a minor wrist injury. He has three goals, 18 assists and a minus-1 plus/minus rating in 59 games.
Wilson will be a healthy scratch for the second game in a row, fifth time in the past six games and eighth time in 11 games. He has five assists and a plus-4 rating in 22 games. He was minus-2 in 12:36 of ice time Wednesday in the Avalanche's 6-4 loss to Los Angeles, not that any of the defensemen played very well that night.
Semyon Varlamov will start again in goal. Rookie Sami Aittokallio started in Tampa on Jan. 25 and gave up three goals on 18 shots in a 5-2 loss. Varlamov played the third period and allowed two goals on 11 shots. He has a 5-2-1 career record against Tampa Bay with two shutouts, a 2.03 goals-against average and .929 save percentage.
Six-foot-7 Ben Bishop will start in goal for the Lightning after making 39 saves Saturday in a 4-2 win at Dallas. He made 25 saves in the Jan. 25 game, his first career game against the Avalanche.
Bishop has played in 46 games and has 29 wins to go with a 2.00 goals-against average and .933 save percentage. He's only played both games twice in back-to-back situations this season.
Forwards Steven Stamkos (broken tibia) and Valtteri Filppula (ankle) remain out.
The third-place Avalanche (38-17-5) is three points behind second-place St. Louis and five back of first-place Chicago in the Central Division. Colorado is completing a three-game homestand before heading on the road for games in Chicago and Detroit, with the NHL trading deadline in-between on Wednesday.
"We're in a battle for first in our division and obviously that's very big for our club," Johnson said. "You could have home-ice advantage (in the playoffs). We're battling with two very good teams, Chicago and St. Louis. We play each of them two more times, so those will be big games. For us, we've kind of had the game-by-game mentality all year long, so we'll just continue to keep it that way and play our game and hope for the best."
Tampa Bay (34-21-5) is third in the Atlantic Division, six points behind first-place Boston and two behind second-place Montreal. Toronto is fourth, one point back of the Lightning.
"The dangerous thing with Tampa is they're missing important players," Roy said. "You could go and say they're not going to be as dangerous, but this is a good hockey team. This is a hockey team that works hard every night. I watched the game they played yesterday against Dallas. They work hard and they're a little like us, they rely on a good goalie. It's going to be important to respect these guys and to play really hard."
Here's the Avalanche lineup:
FORWARDS Ryan O'Reilly -- Matt Duchene -- PA Parenteau Gabriel Landeskog -- Paul Stastny -- Nathan MacKinnon Maxime Talbot -- John Mitchell -- Jamie McGinn Cody McLeod -- Marc-Andre Cliche -- Patrick Bordeleau
DEFENSE Jan Hejda -- Erik Johnson Nick Holden -- Cory Sarich Nate Guenin -- Tyson Barrie
GOALIES Semyon Varlamov Jean-Sebastien Giguere