The Colorado Avalanche head into Nashville riding the momentum of a 6-3 win over the Tampa Bay Lightning, and they’ll try to keep it rolling when they meet the Predators on Oct. 25 at Bridgestone Arena.
This is the first of four regular-season matchups between the Central Division rivals, and Colorado brings plenty of form into the night. Nathan MacKinnon is coming off a game with one goal and three assists, while Mackenzie Blackwood turned aside 31 of the 34 shots he faced.
Blackwood has been particularly impressed by the way the Artturi Lehkonen-MacKinnon-Martin Necas line has looked.
"It's fun to watch," Blackwood said on the Lehkonen-MacKinnon-Necas line per NHL.com. "I see that in practice, how they can be creative and make plays that you didn't expect. But when you see it in a game and they're doing it at the highest level, it's pretty special."
Avalanche coach Jared Bednar also liked what he saw from the power play.
"I thought the power play was outstanding tonight," Bednar had said per NHL.com. "Hard work.
Puck moving quick. Finding the open guy.
Nothing forced, really. Just using the open man [and] guys moving into the right spots.
It was good all around."
MacKinnon’s start has been elite. He sits fourth in the NHL in points with 20 and is tied for fourth in assists with 13.
Colorado has also had the upper hand historically against Nashville, holding a 45-43-5-10 record across 103 previous regular-season games.
The Predators bring their own top producers into the matchup. Roman Josi leads Nashville with eight assists and ranks second on the team with nine points, while Steven Stamkos leads the Predators with 11 points.
Before the trip to face Nashville, the Avalanche placed Georgii Merkulov on waivers. If the 26-year-old forward clears unclaimed, he can be assigned to the Colorado Eagles of the American Hockey League.
Merkulov has dealt with injury this season. He previously played in the USHL and at Ohio State University, and he has appeared in 11 NHL games with the Boston Bruins over the past three seasons. He signed a one-year deal with Colorado this summer.
He was part of a group of three players to hit waivers, along with Kurtis MacDermid, who went to the Ottawa Senators, and Jack Ahcan, who went to the Predators.
Puck drop is set for 7:00 p.m. Central.
After Nashville, the Avalanche will return home to host the New Jersey Devils at Ball Arena on Oct. 28.
Colorado enters the night at 6-4-1 with 13 points in the Central Division, where the Utah Mammoth and Minnesota Wild are currently tied for the lead with 16 points.
In Other News...
Avalanche Just Showed The Problem Fans Keep Fearing
A bad night at home can look different from one team to the next, but for the Avalanche it came with the kind of problems that tend to linger in a long season. Colorado jumped in front early against Nashville and still walked away with a 6-2 loss, getting outshot 35-21 and watching the game slip away as the Predators kept finding answers. The power play had chances to swing momentum back, yet the Avalanche went scoreless on four opportunities and never fully recovered from the early collapse.
The more troubling part was how often the cracks showed when Colorado was trying to kill penalties, because Nashville cashed in four times on seven man-advantage chances. That kind of special teams gap is the sort of issue fans notice fast, especially when it comes on a night when the building should have been an advantage. Even a late benching of Fedor Svechkov in the third period did little to change the tone, and now the Avalanche move on to a home date with the New Jersey Devils looking for a much cleaner response. [Read more 🡒]
Avalanche Pipeline Took Another Tough Turn After Costly Eagles Mistakes
The Colorado Eagles had a promising start before things quickly unraveled in a 4-1 loss to the Bakersfield Condors, a result that left another mark on the Avalanche pipeline. Nikita Prishchepov supplied the lone goal for Colorado, but the rest of the night belonged to Bakersfield after the teams were tied 1-1.
Aku Raty powered the Condors with two goals, and Nathan Day picked up his first win of the season with 28 saves. Colorado goaltender Trent Miner faced 30 shots and allowed four goals, as the Eagles could not recover once Bakersfield strung together three unanswered tallies. [Read more 🡒]
Avalanche Were In Trouble Early For One Frustrating Reason
The Avalanche spent much of the night chasing the game after Nashville raced out to a 3-0 lead through the first two periods. Filip Forsberg, Steven Stamkos and Ryan O'Reilly all found the net for the Predators, while Colorado kept running into the kind of self-inflicted trouble that can bury a team fast in a tight divisional game.
Turnovers were a problem, and the power play never gave Colorado the lift it needed to get back on track. The second period brought a flurry of penalties and even a fight, but the Predators kept control anyway, leaving the Avalanche to sort through an evening that never found much rhythm. [Read more 🡒]