Preview: Avs take on Blues in a New Year’s Eve matchup

Tonight, the Colorado Avalanche end 2025 ready to kick off 2026 with a New Year’s Eve matchup against the St. Louis Blues. The Avs have won eight games in a row now, and look to end the year on a high note with a win over the Blues. This will be the first of three regular-season matchups between these two teams.

Colorado Avalanche

Just like they’ve done all year, since returning from the holiday break, the Avs have just kept rolling, and they keep finding ways to win hockey games, no matter how big a deficit might be, or how poorly they might be playing on any given night. Whether that’s been erasing two different two-goal deficits against the Las Vegas Golden Knights to win in a shootout, or fighting through a pesky, defensive Los Angeles Kings team to win by three goals, the Avs have just found ways to get it done and win games, regardless of what the circumstances are. Tonight, they look to pull off another win against a desperate St. Louis Blues team, who currently sit far outside of a playoff spot.

Projected Lineup

Gabriel Landeskog – Nathan MacKinnon – Martin Necas
Artturi Lehkonen – Brock Nelson – Valeri Nichushkin
Ross Colton – Jack Drury – Victor Olofsson
Joel Kiviranta – Parker Kelly – Gavin Brindley

Devon Toews – Cale Makar
Josh Manson – Brent Burns
Samuel Girard – Sam Malinski

Mackenzie Blackwood
Scott Wedgewood

St. Louis Blues

This season certainly seems like it’s been one that the Blues have not expected to have. After making the playoffs last year and taking the Winnipeg Jets to game seven in their first-round series, they’ve floundered this season, for lack of a better term, and currently sit far outside of a playoff spot at the moment. St Louis’ goaltending was arguably one of their stronger attributes last season, and this season, their goaltending has not done them a ton of favors with Jordan Binnington sporting an .870 save percentage, which is a good reason why they’ve struggled this season so far. Despite their struggles, the Blues are certainly not a team to scoff at and are likely going to give Colorado their best shot tonight, which the Avs should be prepared for.

Projected Lineup

Jonatan Berggren – Robert Thomas – Pavel Buchnevich
Jake Neighbours – Brayden Schenn – Jimy Snuggerud
Otto Stenberg – Dalibor Dvorsky – Jordan Kyrou
Alexey Toropchenko – Oskar Sundqvist – Robby Fabbri

Philip Broberg – Colton Parayko
Tyler Tucker – Justin Faulk
Cam Fowler – Matthew Kessel

Jordan Binnington
Joel Hofer