Game 42 Preview: Predators @ Avalanche

The Avs picked up two big points with a come from behind overtime win against the Blues on Wednesday night. The win has put them in prime position for their game tonight against the Nashville Predators, the team directly above them in the standings. With a win tonight, the Avs and Preds will be tied points-wise, with the Predators having a game in hand and the Avs having all the other tie-breakers.

Usually one of the NHL's more vanilla teams, the Predators actually come into the game off the heels of one of the biggest trades of the last few seasons. On Wednesday, the Predators sent 2013 first round pick, Seth Jones, a player that many hockey analysts thought the Avs should have picked over Nathan MacKinnon to Columbus for the young offensive talent of Ryan Johansen. The trade seems to help both teams. Nashville, always stacked with defensive talent sends their youngest defensive all-star to a defensively inept Columbus team, who sends back one of their brightest offensive stars to a team that has always been thin on scoring talent. We'll see how the trade works for Nashville tonight as Johansen makes his Predators debut in a battle for fifth place in the Central with the Avalanche.

LINES

Martinsen-MacKinnon-Duchene

Landeskog-Soderberg-Comeau

Tanguay-Grigorenko-Iginla

McLeod-Mitchell-Skille

Beauchemin-Bodnarchuk

Holden-Barrie

Guenin-Redmond

Varlamov

Pickard

Scratches: Wagner, Johnson (Injury), Gormley (Waivers)

NOTES

- The Avs placed Brandon Gormley on waivers Thursday.

- It went down to the final seconds of overtime Wednesday, but the Avs won in the extra period and continue to be the only team in the NHL not to have taken part in a shootout this season.

- The Avs are 8-2-1 so far against the Central division this year.

- Both Jones and Johansen were number four picks overall, Jones in 2013 and Johansen in 2010

GAME INFO

Game time: 7pm MT

TV: ALT