Colorado Avalanche Gameday: Another division rivalry night

The Colorado Avalanche and Nashville Predators are each playing the second of a back-to-back series against one another tonight at Ball Arena. Cale Makar will look to lead the line from the blue line again after a disappointing defeat in Dallas last night.

Colorado Avalanche

The Avs lost 3-1 against the Dallas Stars, losing the game in the first 90 seconds after two goals by Joe Pavelski. It snapped the Avs six-game win streak, along with Nazem Kadri’s 10 game point streak.

The only set of good news from last night’s game was Makar’s record-setting goal, becoming the first defensemen in Avalanche history to score in five consecutive games. It came in an onslaught third period where the Avs outshot the Stars 20-1.

Coming into this game, Makar will have some more help in the back. Bowen Byram will return tonight after going through concussion protocol. He will slide into the defense and try to help his Avs rebound at home before hitting the road next week, and Kiefer Sherwood was sent down to the Eagles as well.

Landeskog-Rantanen-LOC

Nichushkin-Kadri-Burakovsky

Jost-Newhook-NAK

Helm-Megna-MacDermid

Toews-Makar

Byram-Girard

Johnson-Johnson

Nashville Predators

The Predators are doing well in the division, above the Avs early on in this season. They are coming off of a home win against the New Jersey Devils last night 4-2.

Former Avs star Matt Duchene has had a resurgence this season, just recently completing a natural hat trick in a loss to the Montreal Canadiens. He is going to look to make it two in a row against his former side.

Forsberg-Granlund-Duchene

Tolvanen-Johansen-Kunin

Trenin-Sissons-Jeannot

Cousins-Novak-Tomasino

Josi-Fabbro

Ekholm-Carrier

Borowiecki-Benning

Goaltending

With a Darcy Kuemper loss last night and Pavel Francouz just days away from a return, we will see Jonas Johansson in a planned start. When he came in in relief on Wednesday, he was stellar and will look to continue that form. For the Predators, we should see David Rittich in net.