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