Avalanche coach
Jared Bednar doesn’t reveal his lineup anymore, hasn’t doesn’t it for weeks, but it appears he’ll be changing the fourth line for Friday’s game at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
I was going to mention Thursday that I thought it was time to put
Carl Soderberg and
Kiefer Sherwood on the fourth line with
Pierre-Edouard Bellemare, replacing rookies
Alex Newhook and
Sampo Ranta, and it looks like Bednar will do that for Game 3 in the best-of-7 second round series against the Vegas Golden Knights.
Here are the
GAME NOTES.
Soderberg and Sherwood left the ice with the regulars Friday morning, while Newhook and Ranta stayed on with everybody else. They really aren’t fourth liners, and they had a rough time against Vegas’ more experienced fourth unit of
William Carrier, Patrick Brown and
Keegan Kolesar, who is replacing the suspended
Ryan Reaves for the second and final time Friday.
“I’d like to see us as a fourth line get some O-zone possession time, have a strong forecheck, make sure we are playing at the right half of the rink, and we didn’t do that enough in Game 2,” Bednar said .
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The schedule, all times MT
Game 1 --– Avalanche 7-1
Game 2 – Avalanche 3-2 (OT)
Friday -- at Vegas, 8:30 p.m.
Sunday -- at Vegas, 6:30 p.m.
*Tuesday -- at Avalanche, TBD
*Thursday -- at Vegas, TBD
*Saturday. June 12 -- at Avalanche, TBD
* If necessary
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The Avalanche traded prospects
Ryder Rolston and
Josh Dickinson to the Chicago Blackhawks for Soderberg on April 12, and he played two games against the St. Louis Blues in the first round.
Soderberg has 43 games of playoff experience and can kill penalties, and Sherwood played pretty well when called upon in the regular season. They don’t necessarily have to score but eating up time in the offensive zone is important.
Logan O’Connor, who’s been out with a lower-body injury, took part in the morning skate and is getting close to returning, Bednar said. He’s be a perfect candidate to go on the fourth line.
The Avalanche need to play a lot better Friday than they did in Game 2, when they were outshot a combined 31-12 in the second and third periods and 41-25 overall.
Goalie
Philipp Grubauer has tied the franchise record for consecutive wins (six) in a playoff year set by Quebec's
Mario Gosselin in 1987. He’s won 10 straight playoff games going back to last year, a franchise record and the eighth-longest streak in NHL history.
Nazem Kadri had his appeal with an independent arbitrator Friday morning and it isn’t known when a decision will be rendered. He’ll serve the fifth game of his eight-game penalty Friday.
Kadri’s appeal with NHL commissioner
Gary Bettman was denied. These decisions are taking so long – Game 4 is Sunday -- he will have served close to eight games anyway by the time the result of his final appeal is announced.
Projected lineup:
FORWARDS
Gabriel Landeskog -- Nathan MacKinnon -- Mikko Rantanen
Brandon Saad -- Tyson Jost -- Valeri Nichushkin
Andre Burakovsky -- J.T. Compher -- Joonas Donskoi
Carl Soderberg -- Pierre-Edouard Bellemare -- Kiefer Sherwood
DEFENSE
Devon Toews -- Cale Makar
Ryan Graves -- Samuel Girard
Patrik Nemeth -- Conor Timmins
GOALIES
Philipp Grubauer
Devan Dubnyk
Colorado Avalanche Blogger •Avalanche Insider • 
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