The Nashville Predators visit the Colorado Avalanche for Game 1 of their opening round. Nashville won three of the four games in the season series with one game going to overtime and another to a shootout. This is where you’ll find everything, including team win odds, the over/under, and point spreads.
Nashville Predators (+240) vs Colorado Avalanche (-300)
NSH: 45-30-7, 3.20 GF/GP, 3.05 GA/GP, L10: 4-4-2
COL: 56-19-7, 3.76 GF/GP, 2.83 GA/GP, L10: 4-5-1
The Predators enter the Stanley Cup Playoffs as heavy underdogs against the best team in the Western Conference. In four meetings during the regular season, Nashville edged out Colorado in three of four games, taking the final two encounters in extra time. Five goaltenders in total started in the season series, with David Rittich and Darcy Kuemper going head-to-head in the final meeting, which is a likely Game 1 matchup.
Kuemper struggled in his final two games against the Predators, posting under a .900 save percentage in both games. Outside of the small sample size, Kuemper has been outstanding for Colorado and put up excellent numbers with 37 wins and five shutouts in 57 starts. Rittich wasn’t relied on much in Nashville this season, as Juuse Saros took on the brunt of the games. Saros was expected to start until an ankle injury took him out of the first two games of the series. Rittich is 1-1-0 against the Avalanche this season, allowing 10 goals and an .871 SV%.
Point Spread
Nashville – Win/Lose By Less Than 2 Goals (+1.5, +100)
If the final two games of the series were any indication of how close this series can be, chances are Game 1 will reflect that. Both Kuemper and Rittich struggled in the final game, and Saros didn’t fare much better in the game before that. The two teams traded goals in each game against each other, and the intensity that each of their three forward lines can demonstrate will make this a fun, tight game to watch.
Both teams possess a surplus of firepower and a Norris finalist, and they’ll trade scoring chances willingly with the hopes that their goaltenders can back them up. With how much the ice shrinks in the postseason, expect this game to be full of goals and ample scoring chances on both sides.
Total Points
Total Goals Scored – Over 6.5 (-130)
The fewest amount of goals these two teams have combined for this season is seven. One game had eight goals, while the last two had nine each. Regardless of who is between the pipes for either team, the scoring power that Nashville and Colorado possess is undeniable. Nashville will hope that players like Matt Duchene and Ryan Johansen continue to contribute offensively in a resurgent year for both, and Filip Forsberg is shaping up for his best playoff year.
Gabriel Landeskog will be in the lineup, but how healthy he is remains to be seen. Head coach Jared Bednar has him on a line with Nazem Kadri and Artturi Lehkonen to start Game 1, while Valeri Nichushkin will play alongside Nathan MacKinnon and Mikko Rantanen. Whether that remains throughout the game could be determined by the score after the first period, but overall, Colorado’s offense has been a major asset for many years. Go with recent memory here and take the over for total goals scored.
Odds via Yahoo and BetMGM.
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