After rare home loss, Avalanche primed for Predators

The Colorado Avalanche had their 17-game home winning streak snapped Monday, which affords them the rare opportunity to start a new one when they host the Nashville Predators on Friday night.

Colorado remains unbeaten in regulation on home ice (19-0-3) more than halfway through the home schedule. Every other NHL team has lost in regulation at home at least five times.

The Avalanche are 2-0-1 against Nashville heading into this season's final regular-season game between the Central Division rivals, but a first-round playoff matchup is possible.

The Predators entered Thursday's action just one point out of the second wild-card spot in the Western Conference while Colorado leads the NHL in points (74) and wins (33) despite being tied for the fewest games played in the league (45).

The Avalanche haven't played since a 4-3 overtime loss to Toronto on Monday night. Colorado had Trent Miner in net for the second straight game, but it appears Scott Wedgewood and Mackenzie Blackwood are healthy and available as Miner was returned on loan to the AHL's Colorado Eagles on Wednesday.

Blackwood hasn't played since Dec. 31 and spent time on injured reserve with a lower-body injury, but he practiced Thursday.

Avalanche defenseman Devon Toews and winger Gabriel Landeskog, both dealing with upper-body injuries, remain out of the lineup. Ross Colton is day-to-day with an upper-body injury, head coach Jared Bednar said Thursday.

The Avalanche have surged to the top of the standings with the top-scoring offense (4.02 goals per game) and the stingiest goaltending (2.20 goals allowed per game). Nathan MacKinnon leads the way with 81 points (36 goals, 45 assists) and is second in the NHL in scoring and first in goals. Martin Necas has 57 points (21 goals, 36 assists) and Cale Makar leads all NHL defensemen with 53 points (14 goals, 39 assists).

One area where Colorado has struggled is the power play, which ranked 24th in the league (16.9%) entering Thursday. Bednar believes it has been better of late.

"I like the focus of our guys right now. They're all on the same page," Bednar said. "It's trending in the right direction, the right way, but you want to see it be dangerous every night, and that's to be determined."

Nashville has won two straight and nine of its last 13 to climb into postseason contention. The Predators are led by Ryan O'Reilly's 39 points (13 goals, 26 assists), followed by Filip Forsberg (16 goals, 16 assists), Steven Stamkos (20 goals, 11 assists) and Luke Evangelista (six goals, 25 assists).

Juuse Saros (18-15-3) has been strong in net over the last three games. His 2-1-0 record, 1.94 goals-against average and .927 save percentage have contributed to Nashville's surge.

"We worked really hard," defenseman Roman Josi said after Tuesday night's 4-3 overtime win over Edmonton. "A month-and-a-half, two months ago, we were really far behind and way out of a playoff spot, and we kind of rallied and came back. Now we're close to a playoff spot, which is huge. It shows the hard work we've put in. We've just got to keep it going though. We're in a fight, and it's going to be hard until the end."

That includes their quick two-game road trip on back-to-back nights, which concludes with a visit to the Vegas Golden Knights on Saturday night.

--Field Level Media