Colorado Avalanche v Nashville Predators
Monday, December 29th 2008 - Start 9:30 PM EST

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Colorado Avalanche (18-16-1, 3rd Northwest)

Big trouble for the "Avs" GM Francois Giguere and head coach Tony Granato.

After bizzare incident with Joe Sakic injury things started to improve for Colorado Avalanche. Big rivals Detroit Red Wings were defeated two times this season and team was on the safe way to playoffs.

But a serious injury for Paul Stastny could ruin all. Stastny is expected to miss at least six weeks after suffering a fractured right forearm.

Last season the Avalanche went 5-7-3 from Jan. 18 to Feb. 20 when Sakic was recovering from surgery for a sports hernia and Stastny from an appendectomy.

Avs are desperate to get one more player at center position. Well even Peter Forsberg will do the job.

So what to expect from Colorado without Sakic and Stastny? To struggle in offense. (C) Tyler Arnason is already moved in top line with Smyth and Hejduk, and for now TJ Hensick is on second line. Definitely we will see a lot changing in Colorado’s lineup.

But the good thing is that defense is playing good and that could be the key for Avs in this tough period.

Nashville Predators (17-15-3, 3rd Central)

Excellent Predators defence wasn’t able to stop Edmonton last night. After only 7 goals alowed in previous 5 games Nashville had a bad night and Edmonton scored 5 goals in first half of the game.

Predators coach Barry Trotz has other problems with his team as Nashville have scored only 87 goals in 35 games and only 2 players (C) Jason Arnott and (D) Shea Weber scored more than 10 goals.

That is why Nashville usually plays low scoring games.

Head to Head

NHL 2008/2009
05.12.2008 Nashville - Colorado 3:2
09.11.2008 Colorado - Nashville 1:0
NHL 2007/2008
23.01.2008 Colorado - Nashville 0:4
16.12.2007 Colorado - Nashville 3:1
14.12.2007 Nashville - Colorado 1:2
04.10.2007 Nashville - Colorado 4:0

The Verdict

I expect low scoring game with possible overtime.

FIXED ODDS BETTING :

My punt is UNDER 5.5 TOTAL GOALS