Brock Nelson<\/a>\u00a0said. “So, we’re confident in the guys that we have in understanding that, a veteran group that has been around, been in this situation before where we need a response.”<\/p>\n3. Manson’s mission<\/p>\n
Bednar wouldn’t confirm Manson will play, saying only that he is available. But all indications are he will be in the lineup for the first time since April 23, which means Colorado will have another big body on defense.\u00a0Manson (6-foot-3, 218 pounds) can take up space, plays a physical game and has some underrated skill.<\/p>\n
In what has already been a physical series, Manson’s potential return gives the Avalanche an edge in that department, especially if he plays his typical physical brand of hockey and is not limited in any capacity.<\/p>\n
“You’re looking at a big, strong, bottom six in Minny that protects the puck real well,” Bednar said. “So, the size and physicality and the ability to close plays out and get you in and out of your zone a little quicker is for me probably the most beneficial thing he can bring to us.”<\/p>\n
Avalanche projected lines<\/p>\n
Artturi\u00a0Lehkonen — Nathan MacKinnon — Martin Necas<\/p>\n
Gabriel Landeskog — Brock Nelson — Valeri Nichushkin<\/p>\n
Ross Colton — Nazem Kadri — Nicolas Roy<\/p>\n
Parker Kelly — Jack Drury — Logan O\u2019Connor<\/p>\n
Devon Toews — Cale Makar<\/p>\n
Brett Kulak — Sam Malinski<\/p>\n
Josh Manson — Brent Burns<\/p>\n
Mackenzie Blackwood<\/p>\n
Scott Wedgewood<\/p>\n
Scratched: Joel Kiviranta, Nick Blankenburg, Zakhar Bardakov, Isak Posch, Jack Ahcan<\/p>\n
Injured: None<\/p>\n
Wild projected lines<\/p>\n
Marcus Johansson —\u00a0Danila Yurov — Matt Boldy<\/p>\n
Kirill Kaprizov — Ryan Hartman — Mats Zuccarello<\/p>\n
Yakov Trenin — Michael McCarron — Vladimir Tarasenko<\/p>\n
Marcus Foligno — Nico Sturm — Nick Foligno<\/p>\n
Quinn Hughes — Brock Faber<\/p>\n
Daemon Hunt — Jared Spurgeon<\/p>\n
Jake Middleton — Zach Bogosian<\/p>\n
Jesper Wallstedt<\/p>\n
Filip Gustavsson<\/p>\n
Scratched: Robby Fabbri, Hunter Haight, Matt Kiersted, Bobby Brink, Calvin Petersen, Jeff Petry<\/p>\n
Injured: Joel Eriksson Ek (lower body), Jonas Brodin (lower body)<\/p>\n
Status report<\/p>\n
Makar (maintenance) did not skate but is expected to play. … The Wild are expected to use the same lineup from a 5-1 win in Game 3 on Saturday. \u2026 Hynes said that although Eriksson Ek is making significant progress, he will not play.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"2. Avs’ energy after opening face-off It would be shocking if the Wild didn’t come out with speed…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":638447,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[385,99],"class_list":["post-638446","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/638446","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=638446"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/638446\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/638447"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=638446"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=638446"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=638446"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}