Avalanche at Predators
The Colorado Avalanche are a long shot to reach the Stanley Cup playoffs, but face an opportunity to improve their odds over the next three games. Colorado on Tuesday begins a two-game road trip in the most difficult way possible when it takes on the Nashville Predators, who lead the NHL with 87 points and are a league-best 25-3-1 at home while boasting a seven-point lead over St. Louis in the Central Division. The Avalanche, who have won two straight following a 5-4 victory over Tampa Bay on Sunday, are six points - and a tiebreaker - behind Minnesota for the second wild-card spot in the Western Conference and must pass four teams including Dallas and the Wild, whom they play Friday and Saturday.
Colorado's offense is beginning to reach its potential with 19 goals in the last five games (4-1-0) while reigning Calder Trophy winner Nathan MacKinnon increased his goal total for the season by 33 percent with his first career hat trick Sunday. "It's been an up-and-down season, lot of down in terms of the team and winning, but lately we've been playing some solid hockey,'' the 19-year-old told the Denver Post. Nashville, which wrapped up a 1-1-1 road trip with a 2-1 shootout victory at Buffalo on Sunday, has won five straight at home - allowing seven goals during that span - and is 14-1-0 in its last 15 at Bridgestone Arena.
TV: 8 p.m. ET, Altitude (Colorado), FSN Tennessee (Nashville), TVA
ABOUT THE AVALANCHE (26-23-11): MacKinnon's explosion is the latest example of Colorado's top line heating up as captain Gabriel Landeskog scored in five straight games prior to recording an assist against Tampa Bay and Ryan O'Reilly has five assists in the last five contests. "The skating ability that (MacKinnon) possesses is one of the biggest assets that a player could have," teammate Alex Tanguay told reporters. "We all wish we could have skating abilities like that. That would make the game a lot easier." The Avalanche have the second-worst power play at 13 percent (Buffalo, 11.4) but are 3-for-10 in their last four games.
ABOUT THE PREDATORS (40-13-7): Nashville's success starts with the two most important statistics - goals for and goals against - as the Predators are among the top 10 scoring teams (2.92 goals per game) while allowing the second-fewest (2.27). Pekka Rinne (34-8-3, .931 save percentage, 2.01 goals against average) is 5-2-1, .931 and 2.22 in eight games since returning from a knee injury and is expected to play after yielding to backup Carter Hutton on Sunday. Top Calder Trophy candidate Filip Forsberg, who decided Sunday's contest with a shootout tally, leads the Predators with 51 points and has 20 goals - second to James Neal's 21.
OVERTIME
1. Nashville, which avoided its first three-game losing streak of the season Sunday, set a franchise record for the fastest team to reach 40 wins - eclipsing the previous mark of 61 games set by the 2006-07 club.
2. Colorado D Jan Hejda missed Sunday's game because of a knee injury and is listed as day-to-day.
3. Nashville won two of the first three meetings in the five-game season series, while Colorado prevailed 3-0 in the last encounter Jan. 30 in Denver and has earned a point in three straight contests (2-0-1) at Bridgestone Arena.