When the Colorado Avalanche take on the Chicago Blackhawks on Tuesday night, they’ll be without their top defenseman again.

That isn’t the only player they’ll be missing.

Cale Makar was supposed to at least travel with the team to Chicago, but the Avalanche decided to leave him at home before their game with the Blackhawks. The same goes for veteran Andrew Cogliano, who took a tough hit along the boards against the Sharks. He left the game briefly and did return, but has been dealing with some injuries this year. Colorado wants both to rest and see if that will help with their injuries.

As much as you’d like to see both of them play, this Avalanche team should still be able to beat the Blackhawks, even with a few players missing. The Blackhawks are dead last in the NHL with just 19 points. Then again, it’s the NHL, and anything can happen.

No Cogliano means that Ben Meyers should check back in. He was a healthy scratch on Sunday against the Sharks.

With Nathan MacKinnon on their side, Colorado always has a chance. He’s currently on a 15 game point streak, and has racked up 27 point during that stretch. The longest point streak in the NHL this year is 17 games, and he’s rapidly closing in on that number.

Colorado will turn to Alexandar Georgiev again in net.

Everyone knew the Blackhawks were just starting their rebuild, but I think the fans are learning that not even Connor Bedard can speed up the process of a long rebuild. Bedard is far and away the top scoring rookie in the league this year with 26 points in 30 games, but he doesn’t have a ton of help. The next closest scorer to him on the roster is Kurashev, who has just 17 points. Lukas Reichel, a former first round pick, has struggled this year, scoring just six points in 24 games. They tried experimenting with him at center, but have moved him back to the wing after a really slow start.

The team is also without Seth Jones right now, and the rest of their defense doesn’t inspire a ton of confidence. That means the Jones brothers will not be playing against each other on Tuesday.

Petr Mrazek has given the Blackhawks some pretty good goaltending, and he’ll be in net against the Avalanche.

Expected Colorado Avalanche Lines

Valeri Nichushkin – Nathan MacKinnon – Mikko Rantanen

Miles Wood – Ross Colton – Jonathan Drouin

Ben Meyers – Ryan Johansen – Logan O’Connor

Kurtis MacDermid – Fredrik Olofsson – Joel Kiviranta

Defense

Devon Toews – Josh Manson

Bowen Byram –  Sam Malinski

Jack Johnson – Caleb Jones

Goalies

Alexandar Georgiev

Expected Chicago Blackhawks Lineup

Reichel – Bedard – Kurashev

Beauvillier – Johnson – Raddysh

Foligno – Dickinson – Blackwell

Donato – Entwistle – Johnson

Defense:

Phillips – Murphy

Kaiser – Crevier

Roos – Zaitsev

Goalies:

Petr Mrazzek

Special Teams

Colorado Avalanche Power Play: 20.5%, 19th in NHL

Colorado Avalanche Penalty Kill: 83.8%, 8th in NHL

Chicago Blackhawks Power Play: 11.6%, 28th in NHL

Chicago Blackhawks Penalty Kill: 75.8%, 25th in NHL

How to Watch

TV: Altitude TV, ESPN+

Radio: 92.5 FM

Game Time: 6:30 PM MST