Scouting the Avalanche

This is the third of four meetings this season between the Kings and the Colorado Avalanche, and follows Colorado’s 3-2 home victory on Oct. 30 and Colorado’s 2-1 shootout victory at Staples Center on Jan. 2. Colorado has been a bit uneven since the last meeting with the Kings, as the Avalanche have a 3-3-1 record in their last seven games but are holding on to eighth place in the Western Conference. The Avalanche haven’t been particularly strong at 5-on-5 scoring or defending, but they do have the NHL’s eighth-best power play, which could test a Kings penalty-kill unit that has surprisingly struggled of late. Colorado, coming off a solid 4-3 overtime win over Florida on Wednesday, will start goalie Jean-Sebastien Giguere, who has won his last two stars and, in 20 games this season, has a goals-against average of 2.12 and a save percentage of .923. For the latest on the Avalanche, check out the coverage from The Denver Post, followed by tonight’s possible lineups for the Kings and the Avalanche…

The Denver Post’s Avalanche coverage

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KINGS LINEUP
Brown-Kopitar-Williams
Penner-Richards-Stoll
Richardson-Loktionov-Lewis
Clifford-Fraser-Hunter

Scuderi-Doughty
Mitchell-Voynov
Johnson-Greene

Quick
Bernier

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AVALANCHE LINEUP
T.J. Galiardi-Paul Stastny-Peter Mueller
Gabriel Landeskog-Ryan O’Reilly-Milan Hejduk
Daniel Winnik-Jay McClement-David Jones
Cody McLeod-David Van Der Gulik-Chuck Kobasew

Ryan Wilson-Erik Johnson
Kyle Quincey-Stefan Elliott
Jan Hejda-Ryan O’Byrne

Jean-Sebastien Giguere
Semyon Varlamov

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