October 20, 2024; San Jose, California, USA; Colorado Avalanche defenseman Cal Makar (8) practices on the ice before the game between the San Jose Sharks and Colorado Avalanche at SAP Center in San Jose. Mandatory Credit: Robert Edwards-Imagen Images After losing two games in a row following a five-game winning streak, the Colorado Avalanche hope to regain their rhythm Saturday night in Music City.
Colorado is coming off of consecutive 5-2 losses on home ice ahead of its road meeting with the Nashville Predators in the first of four regular season matchups between Central Division squads.
The Avalanche went 5–6–0 in October, but ended the month with a few setbacks – identical three-goal setbacks against the Chicago Blackhawks and Tampa Bay Lightning.
The Lightning’s loss was particularly disappointing for Colorado coach Jared Bednar.
The Avs trailed 3–0 less than six minutes into the game when Connor Geikie scored his second career goal against Kaapo Kaukonen, who was making his Colorado debut between the pipes.
Bednar said that mistakes from some of their young players, forced to play due to several injuries, hurt the club in the early stages.
“If you look at the chances we gave up early in the game,” Bednar said. “It’s awareness mistakes that young players make by not reading quickly enough and not getting to the right spot.
“I think if you look at those … games, we played hard and played good defense against a very talented team that … can be very dangerous.”
Cale Makar (goal, assist) and Nathan MacKinnon (two assists) extended their respective season-opening point streaks to 11 games, but could not rally the Avalanche in a tough push in the third period.
Makar, who has four goals and 15 assists, joins Bobby Orr as the only two defensemen to start the season with a point streak of at least 11 games. Orr’s streak to start the 1973–74 campaign ended at 15 games.
Colorado and Nashville are among five of the eight Central teams with losing records through the first full month of the season.
Like their opponent on Saturday, the Predators have suffered two consecutive losses.
Nashville dropped a 3-2 overtime decision to Tampa Bay before losing 5-1 at home to Edmonton on Thursday, which was without star center Connor McDavid.
Filip Forsberg gave the Predators an unassisted power-play goal in the first period on Thursday, tying the game at 1.
Nashville outshot the Oilers 30–20 and trailed the Oilers by just two (29–27) in total shots, but the club could never find the strength to beat 32-year-old journeyman goalie Kelvin Pickard, who stopped 26 shots to earn his third win. Achieved. Time in four decisions this season.
Despite Forsberg’s numbers, the contest seemed to be going away from the home team, as former Predators forward Viktor Arvidsson scored a goal for Edmonton just 37 seconds in.
“First shift,” head coach Andrew Brunet said. “We weren’t ready to play. (It’s like) hammering a square peg into a round hole here and saying they’re a desperate team, and we’ve got to combat that. And (we) came out and played right through it.” Didn’t match up early, and we chased the game again.”
Nashville’s four-game point streak (3-0-1) was broken and ended at 3-6-1 October.
Predators third-line left winger Juuso Parsinen played Thursday for the first time since his season debut on Oct. 15. The team announced Friday that center Mark Jankowski (upper body) is day-to-day.
–Field Level Media