MacKinnon-Bonino 2-23

AVALANCHE (26-24-11) at PREDATORS (36-22-5)
5:30 p.m. ET; ALT, FS-TN, NHL.TV

The Avalanche have 63 points and trail the Minnesota Wild by one point for the second wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Western Conference. They defeated the Chicago Blackhawks 5-3 on Friday and will play the second half of back-to-back games against the Predators.
Nashville has won two consecutive games and trails the Winnipeg Jets by one point for first place in the Central Division. Goalie Pekka Rinne is 4-2-0 with a 2.19 goals-against average and a .931 save percentage in his past six starts.

Players to watch

Avalanche forward Carl Soderberg has five points (three goals, two assists) in his past two games.
Predators defenseman Roman Josi has 15 points (six goals, nine assists) in his past 11 games.

They said it

"You go into Winnipeg and you win a game and it's a tough building to play in. And then you beat the [Vegas Golden Knights] and the Jets at home again. I mean those are two really good teams, and I think that kind of fueled our confidence. That's what we talked about throughout December and January. We were lacking that confidence, and there's no real cure for it other than to kind of chip away and that's what we've done here." -- Avalanche, thoug forward Gabriel Landeskog
"There was some good and some bad. I noticed Kyle [Turris]. I thought Kyle had a terrific game, so that was good. [Viktor Arvidsson] went down there. I thought [Calle Jarnkrok] played a great game. There were some good things that the [Ryan Johansen] line did. Again, I understand and know what I have with [Arvidsson] being up with [Filip Forsberg and Johansen], so this is just a different look to see if we can get some more scoring and get a jumpstart underneath it." -- Predators coach Peter Laviolette on breaking up the Forsberg-Johansen-Arvidsson line

Avalanche projected lineup
Predators projected lineup
Status report

Neither team held a morning skate.

Stat pack

Landeskog has six points (three goals, three assists) in his past five games. … Johansen has nine points (two goals, seven assists) in his past nine games, though none in his past three.