The Avalanche will be without center Paul Stastny for Monday's game against Winnipeg at the Pepsi Center. Stastny hurt his back on his first shift in the opening minute Saturday in the 2-1 loss to St. Louis.
Stastny was to be examined by team doctor Andrew Parker on Monday and coach Patrick Roy said he had "no idea" how long Stastny would be out, but is hopeful he'll be available Wednesday against Chicago.
Rookie Nathan MacKinnon, who has been playing right wing on Stastny's line, moved to center against the Blues after Stastny was hurt and will be there again against the Jets on a line with Gabriel Landeskog and Jamie McGinn.
"It's a more natural position for me," MacKinnon said. "But I'm definitely very comfortable at right wing. I thought our line was playing really well. It (stinks) that Paulie, that his back is locked up. I hope he gets better soon. It's going to be fun. I love playing center, but it's definitely not worth Paulie being out."
The Avalanche doesn't have any extra forwards and will dress seven defensemen. Roy said he hadn't decided whether to use a defenseman as a forward on the fourth line. Ryan Wilson will be the lone healthy scratch.
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While disappointed by the outcome of Saturday's game with the Blues, Matt Duchene said he isn't concerned about the possibility of an emotional letdown against a Jets team that is fighting for its playoff life.
"It might have happened earlier this season, but not at this time of year," he said. "If anything, we're encouraged and even more fired up and have a chip on our shoulder trying to prove that we're for real. Tonight we have a tough matchup, but we are coming to take care of business. We can feel it on the ice. We had a great pregame skate and we can feel it in the room that the guys are focused and ready to go. I expect a good game from our team against Winnipeg."
While the Avalanche has all but locked up a playoff berth and is three points behind second-place Chicago in the Central Division, the Jets are 11th in the Western Conference and trail eighth-place Dallas by five points for the final wild-card position.
"There's no gimmies in this league, especially this time of year with a team that's in the hunt fighting for their lives because they want to play in the playoffs," Duchene said. "They're not far out and they're going to battle hard. They want to steal one at home against us."
The Jets have gone 11-5-2 since Paul Maurice replaced Claude Noel as coach Jan. 12, but they're 0-2-1 in the past three games. They were outshot 41-18 Thursday in a 3-1 loss to Los Angeles and were beaten 5-3 Saturday by Ottawa despite a season-high 49 shots on goal.
Semyon Varlamov will start in goal for the Avalanche and Al Montoya will be in net for the Jets. He stopped all 12 shots he faced after replacing Ondrej Pavelec in the second period Saturday. Montoya made 33 saves in a 3-2 loss to Colorado on Oct. 27 and 33 saves in a 2-1 overtime win Dec. 29. *****
MacKinnon, who had five goals and 13 assists in his scoring streak, said it was "pretty cool" to have broken a Wayne Gretzky record for longest NHL streak by an 18-year-old.
"If anything happens, people like to hype it up," he said. "I've realized that pretty quickly. I've taken it with a grain of salt. It's just a points streak. It's a record, but, I don't know, it's a points streak at the end of the day. I don't have a ton to say about it. It's just a byproduct of the team playing really well. I managed to put a string of games together with points."
The Avalanche lineup:
FORWARDS Ryan O'Reilly -- Matt Duchene -- PA Parenteau Gabriel Landeskog -- Nathan MacKinnon -- Jamie McGinn Cody McLeod -- John Mitchell -- Max Talbot Marc-Andre Cliche -- Patrick Bordeleau
DEFENSE Jan Hejda -- Erik Johnson Andre Benoit -- Cory Sarich Nate Guenin -- Tyson Barrie Nick Holden
GOALIES Semyon Varlamov Jean-Sebastien Giguere