Nashville has been a much better team on the road in the early going this season, and another win in a hostile arena has kept them atop of the western conference standings.

The Avalanche have struggled mightily with the Predators the past few years. The team has not won a game in the regular season since March 29, 2016 when they defeated Nashville in their own building. The Predators are now 42-21 all-time against the Avalanche and have quickly become the biggest nuisance to the good guys in the central division.

Colorado was once again without Tyson Jost, Sven Andrighetto, and J.T. Compher. These three were an integral part of the team last year and their replacements have yet to fulfill their roles.

The team is now on a 4 game skid and travels to Winnipeg for another central division battle with the Jets on Friday night.

Recap

Both teams used a fast start to support the price of admission.

Nathan MacKinnon blew what few hairs Pierre McGuire had left entering the zone early in the first and looked like he was going to take over this game. Nate ended the game with 1 assist which ended up being his 200th career assist.

Colton Sissons scored two goals within five minutes to close out the first period with the Predators leading 2-0.

The Avalanche thought they had cut the Predators lead in half with an early goal in the second from Ian Cole but Peter Laviolette challenged the play was offside and the goal was disallowed. Hard to argue with that one though. Clearly offside.

Matt Calvert eventually got the Avs on the board with a power play tally 7:08 into the second but it didn’t come without some video review drama. It was Calvert’s first goal of the season and first as a member of the Colorado Avalanche.

With less than 3 seconds remaining in the second period, Colton Sissons redirected a shot on the power play to get his third goal of the game. Sissons now has 8 goals in 10 games against Colorado. Natural born Avalanche killer.

Colin Wilson would get the Avalanche closer with a great play by Cole to keep the puck in the zone, but right on cue, the play was challenged yet again by Nashville’s coaching staff and the goal was over turned due to Kerfoot being offside.

Observations

• The coaches will surely work on zone entries at practice this week. This is a young team and there are lessons to be learned from losing games from simple offsides calls.
• Sheldon Dries looked great tonight. He really stood out in the first period and had a great opportunity on a breakaway chance. He was no where to be seen in the second but showed back up in the third with some hard work in the offensive zone corners.
• Colton Sissons has 26 career goals in 205 games. 8 of those goals have come against the Colorado Avalanche. y tho?
• Listen to the chirp that was picked up on Pierre’s mic between Subban and Zadorov. It is highly entertaining. (NSFW)

• The defensive zone breakout looked putrid tonight. The D-men weren’t connecting with the crossing wingers, the forwards were turning over the puck in the neutral zone, and the Avalanche took way too many icings. The Avalanche have now lost both games coming out of a 4 day break.

What’s on Tap

The Avalanche take a quick 2-game road trip up north to take on the Jets on Friday night and the Oilers on Sunday.

Sounds like Tyson Jost should be available for Friday’s game and look for Grubauer to get one of those two starts.