Eurolanche

Kerfoot to center second line

Forward Alex Kerfoot will replace the departed Matt Duchene as the center of the Avalanche’s second line with Sven Andrighetto and Nail Yakupov on his wings. Kerfoot will play despite an allergic reaction he had on Wednesday after eating a sandwich, which unbeknownst to him contained peanuts. “I experienced allergic reactions like this before. I had problems getting to a hospital because of the language barrier,” said Kerfoot after today’s game-day skate. The whole story became public after Kerfoot published the next part of his online notebook from Sweden yesterday. The Harvard product has the confidence of head coach Jared Bednar, who praised his responsible two-way game and hopes that his presence on a line with Andrighetto and Yakupov will help maintain the line’s point production. Nathan MacKinnon will now center the team’s top line with Gabriel Landeskog and Mikko Rantanen. “I think the [Duchene] trade helps to push Nate to get better. He’s on his way to becoming an elite center in the NHL,” said Landeskog during his press conference. The third line will consist of Blake Comeau, J.T. Compher, who makes his return to the lineup after being injury, and Matt Nieto. Gabriel Bourque, Colin Wilson, who’s also returning from an injury, and Rocco Grimaldi will play on the team’s bottom line. Forward A.J. Greer will be a healthy scratch tonight. 

Russian rookie Andrei Mironov will also be scratched, leaving the Colorado with a d-corps consisting of Mark Barberio, Erik Johnson, Tyson Barrie, newly-acquired rookie Samuel Girard, Nikita Zadorov and Chris Bigras. Coach Bednar said that Girard will likely be paired with Johnson on even strength on his Avs debut, but confirmed today that the youngster will indeed be paired with Barrie, with whom he was paired on the team’s first power-play unit during yesterday’s practice. Johnson will likely play with Barberio, while Zadorov and Bigras will be the team’s bottom third defensive pair based on yesterday’s practice. Barrie and Girard were joined by the team’s top forward line on the first PP unit, while the second man-advantage line consisted of Kerfoot, Andrighetto and Wilson as the forwards, and Yakupov and Johnson manning the points. Semyon Varlamov will get the nod in goal today, while Bednar refused to name tomorrow’s starter, saying that the team will evaluate who’ll be between the pipes based on today’s game. Tyson Jost remains out despite skating in a non-contact jersey today. Stockholm native Patrik Nemeth didn’t practice yesterday and won’t play tonight either. Defenseman Anton Lindholm didn’t make the trip, as he’s nursing a broken jaw, while Carl Soderberg still waits for his wife to give birth and likely won’t make the trip to Stockholm at all.

Michal Hezely, the author of this article, was given media accreditation for the entire NHL Global Series and is reporting directly from Stockholm, Sweden.

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