Colorado Avalanche (5-6-0) @ Nashville Predators (3-6-1)
6 p.m. MT | Bridgestone Arena | Watch: Altitude 2, Altitude+ | Listen: Altitude Sports Radio (92.5 FM)
The Avalanche face their second divisional opponent of the season when they play the Predators in Nashville on Saturday. This is the first of four meetings between the clubs, as they’ll meet at Ball Arena on November 11 and December 14 and again in Nashville on February 22.
Latest Result (COL): TBL 5, COL 2
Latest Result (NSH): EDM 5, NSH 1
Lightning vs. Avalanche 10.30.24 Recap
The Avalanche lost to the Tampa Bay Lightning 5-2 at Ball Arena on Wednesday. Tampa Bay jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the first period with goals from Nikita Kucherov at 1:01, Jake Guentzel at 3:36, and Conor Geekie at 5:32. Ivan Ivan put the Avalanche on the board on the power-play at 14:56 of the period with his second goal of the season. The Lightning took a 4-1 lead when Guentzel scored his second of the game at 6:28 of the second period. Cale Makar scored his fourth goal of the season at 10:57 of the second period. Anthony Cirelli put the Lightning ahead 5-2 with an empty-net goal at 18:40 of the third period.
Avs Accomplishments
With two points in Wednesday’s game, Makar extended his season-opening point streak to 11 games, which is now the second-longest such streak by a defenseman in NHL history, trailing only Bobby Orr, who posted a 15-game season-opening point streak in 1973-74.
Makar’s 19 points this season are tied for first in the NHL. The last time a defenseman had at least a share of the NHL’s points lead through the end of October was on November 1, 1974, when Orr’s 15 points were tied for first in the league.
On Friday, Makar was named the NHL’s first star of the month of October.
History
In 95 previous regular-season meetings, the Avalanche have gone 41-40-14 against the Predators. They’ve also met twice in the playoffs, with Nashville beating Colorado 4-2 in First Round of the 2018 Playoffs and Colorado sweeping Nashville 4-0 in the First Round of the 2022 Playoffs en route to the franchise’s third Stanley Cup.
Defeat Against Edmonton
On Thursday, the Predators lost 5-1 to the Edmonton Oilers at Bridgestone Arena. Edmonton’s Viktor Arvidsson opened the scoring at 37 seconds of the first period. Nashville tied the game at 5:05 of the opening frame with a goal from Filip Forsberg but Edmonton took the lead at 9:54 of the period when Corey Perry scored. The Oilers would tally the next three goals of the game with Leon Draisaitl scoring at 9:03 of the second period and 1:48 of the third period before Zach Hyman scored at 12:46 of the final frame.
Stats to Know
Nathan MacKinnon has posted 40 points (16g/24a) in 34 regular-season games against Nashville in addition to 12 points (8g/4a) in 10 Playoff games.
Mikko Rantanen has registered 27 points (10g/17a) in 24 regular-season contests against the Predators in addition to nine points (9a) in 10 Playoff games.
Against Nashville, Makar has recorded 20 points (5g/15a) in 11 regular-season games, in addition to 10 points (3g/7a) in four Playoff games.
Predators by the Numbers
Forsberg leads the team in goals with five and in points with nine while Ryan O’Reilly is in second with eight points (3g/5a).
Gustav Nyquist, Thomas Novak, and O’Reilly are in a three-way tie for second in goals with three.
Brady Skjei leads Nashville defensemen with six points (2g/4a) while Roman Josi is second with five points (5a).
Numbers Game
11
MacKinnon’s 11-game season-opening point streak is the second longest season-opening point streak of his career behind his 13-game season-opening point streak in 2019-20.
4
Ivan is tied for fourth among NHL rookies with two goals.
6
Ivan and Nikolai Kovalenko are tied for sixth among NHL rookies with four points each.
Quote That Left a Mark
“We have confident guys that are filling the spots. We can’t worry about who’s out, unfortunately. We have to work with the group that we [have] in here. Nobody feels sorry for us. We are not feeling sorry for ourselves. We want to be healthy, but we know this group here is capable of winning, regardless of who we have. We just have to flip that mindset and make sure we come out every night regardless of the lineup.”
-- Cale Makar on the team’s injuries
