Colorado Avalanche defenseman Sam Girard was still sore and missed practice, and was thought to otherwise be fine. Head coach Jared Bednar did not rule him out for Tuesday's game against Vegas, but it looks like he may indeed be out.

The Avs are bringing up Jacob MacDonald. Probably not a good sign for Samuel Girard’s availability tonight.

— Peter Baugh (@Peter_Baugh) October 26, 2021

Girard left the game in overtime after taking a late hit from Lightning captain Steven Stamkos. Stamkos didn't receive a penalty and didn't get any supplemental discipline. We are not even 10 games in and the Avs have not been treated kindly by the NHL department of safety.

Bednar confirmed that the team reached out to the league about the hit. The league obviously didn't agree with the Avs. Now it looks like Girard's status has been downgraded.

Meanwhile, Stamkos was again the subject of another questionable hit when he elbowed Dylan Cousins of the Sabres on Monday night. Again, no discipline was handed out.

...

Five games in and the Avs are 2-3-0 and in fourth place in the Central Division. It's been a tough start but the team is showing signs of coming out of it. The top line had a big night offensively. Cale Makar put up a couple of points and Devon Toews, Valeri Nichushkin, and Pavel Francouz are all on the mend and getting closer to returning to the lineup.

On Tuesday they host the equally disappointing Vegas Golden Knight in what is another one of these early marquee matchups. Remember: these two teams were the projected Western Conference superpowers.

The Golden Knights (1-4-0) have lost four in a row and sit dead last in the not-so-strong Pacific Division. They have been outscored 19-10 through these first five games. Is Karma finally catching up with the one-time NHL darlings?

Here is the probable lineup for the game...

Here's the #Avs lineup tonight, per coach Jared Bednar:

Landeskog-MacKinnon-Rantanen
Burakovksy-Kadri-Compher
Ranta-Jost-O'Connor
Helm-Megna-Kaut

Byram-Makar
Johnson&Johnson
MacDermid-Murray

Kuemper

Bowen Byram will replace Samuel Girard (day-to-day) on PP2.

— Peter Baugh (@Peter_Baugh) October 26, 2021

Vegas has not been good. Injuries to key forwards Mark Stone and Max Pacioretty obviously don't help. Defenseman Alec Martinez is also banged up.

One of these teams will leave tonight's game feeling better about themselves... the other?

Let's just hope we don't have to worry about that.

Thanks for reading,
Steve

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