Avalanche at Predators preview

AVALANCHE (38-18-7) at PREDATORS (32-23-8)
7 p.m. ET; ESPN+, FS-TN, ALT, NHL.TV

Colorado, which has won five or more consecutive games four times this season, will try to equal its season-long six-game winning streak from Nov. 27-Dec. 7. It also has won seven straight road games, one from tying the longest road winning streak in Avalanche history.
The Avalanche, who are 13-3-1 in their past 17 games, are three points behind the St. Louis Blues for first in the Central Division.
The Predators will try to extend their winning streak to four games. They have not won four straight since Oct. 22-29.
Nashville has the second wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Western Conference and is one point behind the Calgary Flames for the first wild card.

Players to watch

Avalanche forward Nathan MacKinnon needs one assist for 300 in the NHL.
Predators defenseman Ryan Ellis has six points (one goal, five assists) in a three-game point streak.

They said it

"It's been awesome. It's definitely nice when you get more opportunity and you're out there more. You just feel like you can create more stuff and you're more involved in the game. It's been awesome thus far. I don't want to stop now. I want to keep this going. My linemates have been awesome and we've been clicking, so we want to keep that going into Nashville." -- Avalanche forward Tyson Jost on being given more ice time
"Every game is huge. We broke it down in the last 21 games of the season, you see the standings are so tight. We're just trying to climb the ladder every single day and trying to get better every single day. [The Avalanche are] a team that has been ahead of us all year pretty much. So, it's kind of one of those things, you see somebody ahead of you and you try to climb the ladder." -- Predators forward Colin Blackwell

Avalanche projected lineup

Gabriel Landeskog -- Nathan MacKinnon -- Valeri Nichushkin
Tyson Jost -- J.T. Compher -- Joonas Donskoi
Vladislav Namestnikov -- Pierre-Edouard Bellemare -- Martin Kaut
Logan O'Connor -- Vladislav Kamenev -- Mark Barberio
Ryan Graves -- Cale Makar
Samuel Girard -- Erik Johnson
Ian Cole -- Nikita Zadorov
Michael Hutchinson
Pavel Francouz
Scratched: None
Injured: Andre Burakovsky (upper body), Matt Calvert (lower body), Nazem Kadri (lower body), Philipp Grubauer (lower body), Matt Nieto (upper body), Mikko Rantanen (upper body), Colin Wilson (lower body)

Predators projected lineup

Colin Blackwell -- Ryan Johansen -- Colton Sissons
Filip Forsberg -- Kyle Turris -- Mikael Granlund
Calle Jarnkrok -- Matt Duchene -- Viktor Arvidsson
Rocco Grimaldi -- Nick Bonino -- Craig Smith
Roman Josi -- Ryan Ellis
Jarred Tinordi -- Mattias Ekholm
Dan Hamhuis -- Dante Fabbro
Juuse Saros
Pekka Rinne
Scratched: Korbinian Holzer, Austin Watson, Yannick Weber
Injured: None

Status report

The Avalanche didn't have a morning skate. … Saros is expected to start his fourth consecutive game.

Stat pack

MacKinnon has 25 points (nine goals, 16 assists) in 25 games against the Predators. … Granlund has 23 points (five goals, 18 assists) in 27 games against the Avalanche.