The accolades just keep coming for the Colorado Avalanche as they’ve extended their win streak to eight games with a 3-0 shutout victory over the Nashville Predators on Saturday night. What what was interesting
about this win, in what has become expected in a routine fashion, is the distinction that it was Colorado’s first shutout of the 2025-26 season came in also their worst game of the season.
The Game
There isn’t much to say about this contest. Avalanche defenseman Brent Burns scored 15 seconds into the game surprising Nashville goaltender Juuse Saros with Colorado’s first shot on goal. Truly nothing happened for the following 58 minutes until Colorado got two empty net goals from both Nathan MacKinnon and Jack Drury as Nashville was trying to salvage a point out of the contest to arrive at the 3-0 Avalanche victory.
Takeaways
What made this the worst game of the season against possibly the weakest team in the league is that it was Colorado’s worst analytic performance on the season. The 36% Corsi For percentage they earned this evening is a far cry from the dominant puck possession we’ve come to expect from the burgundy and blue. Giving up 2.75 expected goals against at 5-on-5 to Nashville is also a high mark for any opponent this season.
Of course doing all this with a leading goal put on the board 15 seconds into the game is a fair bit of needed context. Nashville pushed back from the onset and outshot Colorado 16-6 in the first period. Despite some early goals we’ve seen this year from this Avalanche squad they’ve also had some slower starts and flat first periods even during the now eight-game win streak. What Colorado can do, though, is eventually pressure their opponent enough by the third period to take control back. They didn’t do enough to turn the tide analytically but were exerting their game much more by the time the Avalanche potted those two empty netters.
With Gavin Brindley now expected to miss a couple weeks at least with a lower body injury, the coaching staff decided to tinker with the power play yet again by moving up Gabe Landeskog to the first unit instead of Victor Olofsson. It didn’t work as Colorado went 0/2 on the man advantage in this contest. Nashville obviously didn’t score on their three power plays either, though.
The good news is this was the first start Mackenzie Blackwood began looking like himself as he earned Colorado’s first shutout of the season. The Avalanche netminder stopped 35 shots and was first star on the evening. It will be interesting to see if this gets him the starting job back with an upcoming game against the San Jose Sharks before another weekend back-to-back.
Upcoming
No rest for the weary as the Avalanche head to Chicago to take on the Blackhawks Sunday evening at 5 p.m. MT.
