November 15 morning skate notes

A good afternoon to you from downtown Denver, Insiders. Notes and the such:

-The Kings held a regular morning skate at the Pepsi Center. Anze Kopitar did not skate, though the rest of his teammates did. Lines:

King-Lewis-Purcell
Pearson-Carter-Toffoli
Brown-Dowd-Setoguchi
Clifford-Shore-Nolan

Forbort-Doughty
Muzzin-Martinez
Gravel-Gilbert
Extra: Greene

-Peter Budaj and Jack Campbell were the two goalies on the ice for most of the skate, and Budaj left the ice first, so he’s expected to start. Jeff Zatkoff joined the skate late and got in some extra work with the coaches and Matt Greene, so he remains close to returning but unlikely to back up Budaj tonight.

-Not that you haven’t been keeping track, but currently injured: Marian Gaborik, Jonathan Quick, Anze Kopitar, Brayden McNabb, Andy Andreoff, Jeff Zatkoff. Said Drew Doughty: “You know, people can make a lot of excuses that we have a lot of guys out right now, including Kopi, but in this room we’re not thinking about that at all. We’re just thinking who’s our next matchup, who are we playing next, and how are we going to win that game. And with having those guys out, it gives the opportunity for other guys to step up to the plate and prove how good they can play and prove that they deserve to be in the lineup. So I think a lot of those guys have done a good job of that so far and we need them to continue to.”

-The Avs are expected to be without Matt Duchene, who suffered a head injury in a win over Winnipeg on Friday and did not play in a loss to Boston on Sunday. Duchene returned to the ice this morning for Colorado but wore a red no-contact jersey. That’s a challenge for a team that’s tied for last in the league with an average of 1.93 goals per game. “We need more shots, I think that’s the first thing. Definitely we start there,” Nathan MacKinnon said. “We watched some video, we’re not going to the net enough, we’re not getting the greasy ones. We’ll get a couple breaks, and once we start going here, hopefully the floodgates will open.” Colorado ranks 28th in the league with an average of 28.1 shots per game; on a brighter note, Avs centers rank fifth with a 51.6 success rate at the dot.

Looks like #Avs lines will be 92-29-8, 17-34-96, 27-25-55, 14-7-12; Wiercioch in on D, Gelinas out, Varlamov starts #Avalanche #Kings

— Rick Sadowski (@RickS7) November 15, 2016

-We’re creeping towards leaving-for-the-arena time, but expect a story on the power play and the reunification of That 70’s Line to come later today. Enjoy your Tuesday, Insiders, and thank you for reading.