Deen's Notebook
Avalanche vs. Predators, Game 82: Lines, Starting Goalies & How to Watch

It all comes down to this, as the Colorado Avalanche will take on the Nashville Predators in the final game of the NHL regular season.
Win, and the Avalanche will take the Central Division, and face the Seattle Kraken in the first round of the playoffs. Lose, and they’ll stay in second place, facing the Minnesota Wild.
It’s pretty simple.
Who is starting for Colorado? Your guess is as good as mine. It had seemed like a foregone conclusion that Pavel Francouz would take this game, but with the division on the line, Jared Bednar said he hadn’t made up his mind yet after Thursday night’s win. We likely won’t find out the answer until warmups.
One thing we do know is that the Avalanche will be without Andrew Cogliano, and likely Denis Malgin as well. The AHL transaction page shows Alex Galchenyuk has been recalled. With Ben Meyers still around, both of them will likely slide into the lineup for the big game. Cale Makar is not expected to dress either.
The Predators have been giving teams a lot of trouble over the last month, but a lot of that is due to their star goaltender, Juuse Saros. He’s not expected to start this game. They will also be without Roman Jose, Matt Duchene, Filip Forsberg, and Ryan Johansen.
The Avalanche have won all three meetings with the Predators this season.
Expected Colorado Avalanche Lines
Artturi Lehkonen – Nathan MacKinnon – Mikko Rantanen
Evan Rodrigues – J.T. Compher – Valeri Nichushkin
Matt Nieto – Ben Meyers – Logan O’Connor
Alex Newhook – Lars Eller – Alex Galchenyuk
Defense
Devon Toews – Samuel Girard
Jack Johnson – Bowen Byram
Brad Hunt – Erik Johnson
Goalies
Alexandar Georgiev
Pavel Francouz
Expected Nashville Predators Lines, per DailyFaceoff.com
Sanford – Glass – Tomasino
Sherwood – Novak – Evangelista
Trenin – Sissons – Parssinen
Asplund – Jankowski – McCarron
Defense:
McDonagh – Fabbro
Barrie – Livingstone
Stastney – Foote
Goalies:
Lankinen
Saros
Special Teams
Colorado Avalanche Power Play: 24.9%, 6th in NHL
Colorado Avalanche Penalty Kill: 79.3%, 16th in NHL
Nashville Predators Power Play: 17.3%, 27th in NHL
Nashville Predators Penalty Kill: 82.3%, 8th in NHL
How to Watch
TV: ESPN+, Altitude
Radio: Altitude Sports Radio 92.5
Game Time: 6:00 PM MST