Colorado Avalanche vs. Nashville Predators Prediction, NHL Odds
We’re headed to the Central Division Tuesday night as two teams that have both gone 11-1-1 over their last 13 games are set to meet when the Colorado Avalanche head to Nashville. It’s a quick turnaround for the Avs after they extended their franchise-best home winning streak to 12 games with a 4-3 come-from-behind victory against Seattle on Monday. The Predators have been off since winning their fourth straight game, 4-2, in Arizona on Saturday.
Colorado is a -152 favourite to win on the NHL odds, with a total of 6.0.
Avalanche vs. Predators NHL Betting Odds
These teams have split two games this season, with the home team coming out on top in both. The head-to-head series has trended to high scoring games as the Over has hit twice this year (Colorado won 6-2 on Nov. 27; Nashville won 5-2 on Dec. 16). Mikko Rantanen has four goals and two assists against Nashville this season. Filip Forsberg has two goals and two assists against Colorado. Dating back to last season, the Over has hit in three of the last four games between these teams.
The Avalanche bumped their overall win streak to five games on Monday and they come into this contest with an 8-6-1 road record for the year. They’re an even 16-16 against the spread overall, but just 5-10 ATS on the road. The total has gone Over in Colorado’s last five road games and five of their last six overall.
Nashville’s six-game win streak is a big reason why they currently sit atop the Central Division standings. They’re 21-15 ATS overall and 7-8 ATS at home. The total has gone Over in six of the Predators’ last seven home games and five of their last six overall.
Colorado Avalanche
Nazem Kadri’s late third period goal was the winner for Colorado on Monday. Devon Toews had tied the game just over two minutes earlier, while Nicolas Aube-Kubel scored in the first and second periods. Pavel Francouz stopped 23 of 26 shots in just his second start of the season. Gabriel Landeskog (14G, 21A) missed the game and will be out of the lineup Tuesday after entering COVID protocols on Monday.
Kadri has been a major part of this Avalanche offence and sits fourth in league scoring with 46 points (13G, 33A). As a team, the Avalanche are averaging an NHL-best 4.31 goals per game. Rantanen leads the Avs with 16 goals and is second on the team in scoring with 40 points. Nathan MacKinnon (5G, 29A) had a 13-game point streak snapped on Monday.
Colorado’s goaltending has been the one major weak spot for this team as they sit 26th in the NHL in save percentage (.894). Darcy Kuemper will get the nod in net against Nashville. Kuemper, who was pulled in his last start against Toronto, is 16-5-0 this year, with a 2.77 goals-against average and .908 SV.
Nashville Predators
Mattias Ekholm, Yakov Trenin and Tanner Jeannot gave Nashville a 3-0 first period lead against the Coyotes on Saturday, while Roman Josi added a third period power play marker. Juuse Saros stopped 38 of 40 shots in the win. It was Nashville’s 12th win in their last 15 games, with Saros in net for 10 of those wins.
Forsberg, who leads the team with 18 goals (29 points) was placed in COVID protocols just before Saturday’s game and will likely miss out on Tuesday as well. In his previous three games, Forsberg had scored four goals and recorded multiple points in each contest. Josi currently leads the team in points with 34 (12G, 22A).
Saros is expected to get the start again on Tuesday. The Predators’ No. 1 goalie is 19-9-1 for the season and ranks within the top 10 in the NHL in GAA (2.21) and SV (.929). Saros is 2-1-0 with a 2.82 GAA and .912 SV in his career against Colorado.
COL
NAS