Open thread: Colorado Avalanche vs. Nashville Predators (7 p.m. MT)

The Colorado Avalanche have one more home game before they quickly turn around and head back on the road. This time they face an all-too-familiar opponent: the Nashville Predators. This will be the third regular season game between these two teams, with Nashville winning the first game and Colorado winning the second game.

Colorado avalanche

Coming off a very successful road trip where they won four out of five games on the road, Colorado returned home to take on the Utah Hockey Club on Thursday night, where they ended up losing 4-1. Now they can bounce back tonight against the Nashville Predators.

It has been fascinating to see where both of these teams are at this point in the season. While they both struggled to start the year, Colorado managed to turn around the rough start and put itself in a position to keep pace with the top teams in the division. On the other hand, Nashville struggled to start the season the same way and has not been able to turn it around so far this season. Hopefully Colorado can take advantage of this struggling Predators team tonight and bring home another two points.

Projected lines

Artturi Lehkonen – Nathan MacKinnon – Mikko Rantanen
Ross Colton – Casey Mittelstadt – Valeri Nichushkin
Joel Kiviranta – Parker Kelly – Logan O’Connor
Givani Smith – Ivan Ivan – Chris Wagner

Devon Toews – Cale Makar
Samuel Girard – Sam Malinski
Keaton Middleton – Calvin De Haan

Nashville Predators

As previously discussed, it’s not exactly a secret that this Nashville team has struggled all season so far. After an offseason where they signed three of the biggest names on the market in Steven Stamkos, Brady Skjei and Jonathan Marchessault, the results have undoubtedly been disappointing so far this season.

However, they are coming off a big 4-1 win against the Dallas Stars, which snapped their previous five-game losing streak. Despite their struggles, they have some incredible elite talent on their team that Colorado will need to watch out for in this game tonight.

Projected lines

Filip Forsberg – Steven Stamkos – Jonathan Marchessault
Zachary L’Heureux – Ryan O’Reilly – Gustav Nyquist
Mark Jankowski – Tommy Novak – Luke Evangelista
Cole Smith – Michael McCarron – Colton Sissons

Brady Skjei – Nick Blankenburg
Marc Del Gaizo – Luke Schenn
Kevin Gravel – Adam Wilsby

Goalkeepers

After Scott Wedgewood made three straight starts, we’ll likely see Mackenzie Blackwood in net tonight for the Avs, assuming he’s not still sick of course. If he’s still sick, Wedgewood will be back in net for Colorado. For the Predators, it will likely be Juuse Saros in net against Blackwood as Justus Annunen got the start in their game against the Dallas Stars.