Pirate Galaxy » 2.86Insider profile:?The departure of L

The Los Angeles Kings are limping to the end of their five-game road trip, but theyre not alone in injury woes.The Colorado Avalanche are nursing some key injuries as well.The Kings (7-8-1) are expected to be without Anze Kopitar due to an upper-body injury while the Avalanches leading scorer, Matt Duchene, is still out with concussion-like symptoms. That means two of the most important players for both teams wont be on the ice when they meet at Pepsi Center on Tuesday night.Kopitar is not officially ruled out for the game but according to the team website, he is taking anti-inflammatories and is in a holding pattern, and until the area improves he wont be able to do much.Thats a tough break for a team that is already without its No. 1 goaltender, Jonathan Quick, for a significant stretch. Backup Jeff Zatkoff left Fridays game with groin spasms so veteran and former Avalanche top goalie Peter Budaj, who started the season in the American Hockey League, will probably start against Colorado.Budaj has been in net for all seven of the Kings victories, and hes looking forward to playing against Colorado.Its great to come back, he told the teams website. I think Montreal is definitely a special place. Id been there three years but Colorado is more like my home -- I mean obviously Im Slovakian so thats my home -- but I lived here, I started my professional NHL career here, so its a very special place.Budaj will face a team struggling in coach Jared Bednars first season at the helm. The Avalanche (6-8-0) are coming off a 2-0 home loss to Boston on Sunday in which they were outshot 44-21. It was the fourth time this season Colorado has been shut out, and the second time at home.The Avalanche have just 17 goals in their last 12 games and are 3-for-25 on the power play in the last five games.Not having Duchene for the second straight game will hurt. He was scheduled to skate Monday but didnt feel well enough to get on the ice. The hope is he can be out for the morning skate Tuesday.He didnt feel he was ready to skate (Monday) morning with the group, so (the training staff) gave him the morning (off) to see what comes of it (Tuesday), Bednar told HockeyBuzz.com Monday.Colorado is going to have lineup changes for the game against Los Angeles. Forward Blake Comeau is back after missing four games with a groin injury and A.J. Greer, who made his NHL debut Sunday as an emergency call-up, will be back in San Antonio of the AHL.In addition, defenseman Patrick Wiercioch is expected to replace Eric Gelinas in the lineup, but Colorado still has to fix its offensive woes.Were not getting enough shots through to the net is one issue from our blue line, Bednar told HockeyBuzz.com. We can do a better job of finding some lanes and getting some playable pucks down to the net. A lot of it is some fancy plays, east-west plays, when we can be driving the net more. Its what teams are doing against us and having success.After Sundays shootout loss in Winnipeg, the Kings are 1-2-1 on their road trip and could finish .500 with a win Tuesday.The Avalanche are trying to even their record on this four-game homestand before heading out for three games. Getting the offense going might be as simple as scoring a few goals to get the confidence back.Sometimes when you go through scoring slumps you start to maybe press a little more, Comeau told HockeyBuzz.com. I think its going to take one game where everythings clicking, where we get some greasy goals, get the confidence back and go from there. Magic Jerseys China . The Dane followed up his first European Tour title last weekend with eight birdies and just a single dropped shot on Thursday for a one-stroke advantage over South Africas Allan Versfeld and Portugals Ricardo Santos. Custom Penny Hardaway Jersey . 10 Texas A&Ms offence dominated as usual against SMU. http://www.custommagicjersey.com/ . After a first half in which he thought "the lid was on the basket," the Toronto Raptors coach watched his squad mount a second half surge to defeat the Cleveland Cavaliers 98-91. Cheap Custom Magic Jersey . The parade and rally were held to celebrate the Saskatchewan Roughriders 45-23 win over the Hamilton Tiger-Cats on Sunday in the CFLs championship game. Custom Magic T-shirts . Spiller left Week 3s 27-20 loss to the New York Jets with a thigh injury, but fully practiced with the team all week and expects to be ready to go on Sunday. For the sixth season in a row, ESPN.com is ranking the top players in the NBA. Who will be the best player this season?To get the final ranking, we asked our expert panel to vote on pairs of players.LeBron James vs. Stephen Curry. Russell Westbrook vs. Kevin Durant. Damian Lillard vs. Chris Paul.We asked, Which player will be better in 2016-17? To decide, voters had to consider both the quality and the quantity of each players contributions to his teams ability to win games.Well roll out the rest of our top 200 players over the next two days. If you want to get involved in the discussion or just follow along, #NBArank is the Twitter hashtag to use. You also can follow along @ESPNNBA and on Facebook.On to the list ...10. Damian LillardTrail Blazers | PG | @Dame_LillardLast years rank: 152016-17 projected RPM: 2.86Insider profile:?The departure of LaMMarcus Aldridge left Lillard as the face of a younger Blazers team, and his effective leadership helped set the tone for Portland exceeding expectations.dddddddddddd That success paid off for Lillard, who was left off the All-Star team but was voted to the All-NBA second team. That made Lillard eligible for the so-called Derrick Rose rule, bumping his five-year extension that begins this year from $127 million to $140 million. Lillard could have made even more but agreed with the Blazers beforehand to cap his salary at 27.5 percent of the cap instead of the maximum possible 30 percent. ?Read more ?#NBArank 6-106: Anthony Davis7: Chris Paul8: James Harden9: Paul George10: Damian Lillard#NBArank 2016: The Top 200 countdown ' ' '