The Avalanche face Philadelphia on Saturday to open a five-game road trip, their first game following an 11-day break for All-Star Weekend and a bye week.

Philipp Grubauer will start in goal and Joonas Donskoi will play after missing five games with a concussion he sustained Jan. 7.

GAME NOTES

The Avalanche are second in the Central Division, eight points behind St. Louis with three games in hand. There are 33 regular-season games remaining.

The Avalanche went 3-0-2 in the final five games before the break, all at the Pepsi Center, winning the last three.

“It was important for us to win the home games to make sure we go into the break with a good feeling and to start to play the right way,” Grubauer said. “We have to start off the way we finished. I think that’s going to be the biggest challenge. Teams have already played so it's going to be a challenge.”

The Flyers returned from their bye week Friday with a 4-3 overtime loss in Pittsburgh.

"They have a game under their belts, it is a back-to-back and we haven't played yet, so I don't know if there is a clear advantage there,” coach Jared Bednar told reporters after a morning skate at the University of Pennsylvania. “I think just going out for us, keeping it simple early, make sure we are getting to our game, getting our legs underneath us and trying to use our speed to our advantage will be key.”

The lineup:

FORWARDS
Gabriel Landeskog -- Nathan MacKinnon -- Mikko Rantanen
Valeri Nichushkin -- Nazem Kadri -- Andre Burakovsky
Matt Calvert -- Pierre-Edouard Bellemare -- J.T. Compher
Matt Nieto -- Tyson Jost -- Joonas Donskoi

DEFENSE
Ryan Graves -- Cale Makar
Samuel Girard -- Erik Johnson
Nikita Zadorov -- Ian Cole

GOALIES
Philipp Grubauer
Pavel Francouz



Follow @RickS7