Nashville Predators at Colorado Avalanche: Pre-Game Primer

TV-Radio...

8:00 CST - TV: Fox Sports Tennessee  Preds Radio Network (102.5-FM The Game)

Stage Setter...

The Predators play Colorado in back to back games starting tonight in Denver and finishing on Thursday at the Bridgestone Arena. These are classic "four-point games" as each game can provide a huge swing in the tightly bunched Western Conference standings.

Make the jump for everything else...


Western Conference Standings...

        Team        GP Pts
 1. * Vancouver 43 55
 2. * Detroit         41 53
 3. * San Jose  38 50
 4. St. Louis         41 53
 5. Chicago         42 53
 6. Los Angeles 43 49
 7. Nashville         41 48
 8. Minnesota         42 48
 9. Dallas         40 47
 10. Colorado         43 47
 11. Phoenix         42 45
 12. Calgary         43 43

Prior Meetings...

None this year. Predators won all four meetings last season. The Predators' all-time record against Colorado is  22-20-6 and are 10-11-(1)-2  in Denver.

Last Time Out...

Nashville beat Carolina 5-2 on Saturday night at home on the strength of four power play goals.

Colorado was shut out 4-0 by the Blues in St. Louis snapping a three-game winning streak.

Top Scorers (G-A-Pts)...

Nashville - S. Weber (9-21-30), C.Smith (9-17-26), D. Legwand (10-15-15), M. Erat (8-17-25), R. Suter (5-19-24) and C. Wilson (8-15-23)

Colorado - R. O'Reilly (10-19-29), M. Hejduk (11-14-25), M. Duchene (12-12-24),P. Stastny (11-11-22), G. Landeskog (8-13-21), and K. Quincey (4-16-20)

In Goal (W-L-O, GAA, save %)...

Nashville - P. Rinne (probable start) (20-11-4,2.61,.917) and A. Lindback (2-4-0, 2.75,.893)

Colorado- J. Giguere (9-6-0,2.08,.924) and S. Varlamov (probable start) (14-13-1,2.86,.903)

Other Comparisons...

Teams	Predators	Avalanche
Record	22-15-4	23-19-1
Last 10	6-4-0	8-2-0
Home Record	12-7-3	13-10-0
Road Record	10-8-1	10-9-1
Power Play (rank)	22.0 (2)	18.5 (14)
Penalty Kill (rank)	81.8 (19)	81.4 (21)
Goals For (rank)	2.63 (15)	2.49 (24)
Goals Allowed (rank)	2.76 (13)	2.79 (14)
Shots For (rank)	27.5 (27)	30.7 (12)
Shots Allowed (rank)	31.0 (22)	29.3 (9)
Penalty Mins (rank)	10.5 (10)	12.2 (20)
Faceoff % (rank)	49.7 (20)	51.6 (6)

Injuries...

Nashville - Bouillon (face) probable

Colorado - Injured Reserve: Matt Duchene (left knee),Peter Mueller (head). Erik Johnson (hand) and Shane O'Brien (knee) are out.

Notes...

• The Predators are 17-2-2 when scoring more than two goals.
• Rinne is (7-3-0, 2.50,.901) career against the Avalanche.
• Varlamov has only made one career start against Nashville in a 3-2 shootout win for Washington on 10-17-09.

Other Predator Previews...

Predators.com
Ryan Porth  Preview - Audio w/ Kevin Klein
Amanda DiPaolo
Robby Stanley
Patten Fuqua
Paul McCann
The Tennessean
Predatorial

Colorado Media...

Avalanche.com
Adrian Dater
Aaron Musick
Mile High Hockey
The Avalanche Guild
Jibblescribbits
AvsHockeyPodcast


A Look Ahead for the Preds...

Tonight        Return to Smashville after the game
Tomorrow    Practice (Centennial ) 11 a.m.
Thursday     Colorado
Saturday      Philadelphia
Monday       @ NY Islanders (noon start)
Tuesday       @ NY Rangers
Thursday      @Columbus


More Later...

Buddy Oakes for PredsOnTheGlass