Colorado Avalanche Face Nashville Predators in 1st Game of Back to Back

The Colorado Avalanche will attempt to win two in a row when they visit the Nashville Predators for the teams’ second game of the season.

The Colorado Avalanche have traveled to Nashville to face the Predators for the first game of a back-to-back series. This is the fifth back-to-back series Colorado has had in this young season. They’ve also had two big gaps of no-play that had nothing to do with international travel.

The Predators are coming off a 6-4 loss to the Minnesota Wild, and we hate them for that. The Avalanche, of course, are coming off that exhilarating win over the Washington Capitals that saw our captain, Gabriel Landeskog, get his first NHL hat trick:

This is the second time this season Colorado has headed to Nashville. They dropped at 4-1 decision on October 17 with center Nathan MacKinnon recording the only Avs goal of the game. It was also his first goal of the season, and it was a funny one:

Colorado has now gone 31-33-6-5 all-time against the Predators.

How to Enjoy the Game

Game time: November, 18, 6:00 pm MT
TV Networks: Altitude TV (Avs’ feed), FS-TN (Preds’ feed)
Radio: Altitude Radio (AM 950)

Facing your Former Team

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By now, former Avalanche alternate captain Cody McLeod is an old pro at facing his former team — he’s done it twice already and even scored a goal on Colorado.

Samuel Girard will face his former team for the first time night. Girard didn’t spend much time with the Predators — he skated in five games this season. However, he had this to say of the situation:

“I am not going to put any more pressure because that is my old team. I am just going to be ready for the game tomorrow, and I am going to play my game. I am going to bring some offense and play good defensively as well.”

Though he never played for Colorado, center Kyle Turris carries his own backstory with the Avalanche. Lost in Avs Nation is the fact that Turris was the big part of what Ottawa gave up for Matt Duchene. The Senators sent Turris to Nashville in exchange for the Predators sending Girard, Kamenev and a 2018 second-round draft pick to Colorado.

Prior to the trade, Turris had spent seven years playing for the Ottawa Senators, making this a big move for him, too.

Players to Watch

For the Colorado Avalanche, the Nathan MacKinnon line is sizzling right now. Not only did Gabriel Landeskog get his first NHL hat trick, but Mikko Rantanen had a career-high four-point night with a goal and three assists. Nathan MacKinnon also hit a career high with his goal and four assists.

Vladislav Kanenev got injured — a broken bone — in the first period of his first Avs game, so Colorado has recalled forward Dominic Toninatio from the San Antonio Rampage. He is expected to make his NHL debut in Nashville. Here’s what coach Jared Bednar said of Toninato:

“He is a big strong guy. Works real hard, responsible guy. And down [in San Antonio] he is playing in a little bit of a checking role and doing a lot of penalty killing. He is creating chances both on the penalty kill and 5-on-5. He has scored some goals and sort of continued to grow there. So we are going to get him up here and take a look at him in the center position.”

Left wing Filip Forsberg is a tricky forward. You’d think the Colorado Avalanche would have better luck with a player named Forsberg. Though not as dangerous as our Peter Forsberg, he leads the Predators in points with 17 (9 goals, 8 assists).

The Avalanche would also do well to watch defenseman Roman Josi. He scored one of the goals against Colorado in the last game. Last season, he had at least one point in each game against the Avs — in total two goals and four assists.

Next: Conor Timmins Tearing up the OHL

After tonight’s game, the Colorado Avalanche face the Nashville Predators two more times. They host the Predators on March 4 and then March 16.

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