Five separate players from the Nashville Predators stuck it to the Avalanche tonight in a dreary 5-1 loss for the Burgundy and Blue.

With Tomas Fleischmann out for the season with a pulmonary embolism, and TJ Galiardi down to the Lake Erie Monsters in exchange for Ryan Stoa, the Avalanche seemed short a lot of steam on their home ice.

Among the many problems they were having, passing the puck seemed to be at the top of the list. Any time the Avs passed the biscuit it would bounce off a Nashville skate, or a teammate would over skate the puck which lead to turnovers. Just a bad night all around against a strong Nashville defense.

On top of that, the Avs took five penalties in all, and received just over 30 seconds of man advantage for themselves. There was also a goal reviewed that, from the overhead view, looked like a good one, but the folks in the Toronto Situation Room thought otherwise.

Though the Burgundy Boys took five penalties throughout the game, their penalty kill was strong enough to fight off each of them. There were a few scary moments, but the guys were able to scrape up enough luck to keep the puck out of the net when they were short a man, it was just at even strength where the problems started.

It was also Kyle Cumiskey’s first game back since he was concussed on October 30th by one of the Columbus Blue Jackets. He looked a bit sluggish out on the ice, but I’m sure we’ll see the speedy defenseman back to his usual self in a few games.

Matt Duchene was the only Avalanche with the determination to deny Pekka Rinne, who was spectacular, a shutout. With assists from Kevin Shattenkirk and Chris Stewart, Dutchy was able to pound the puck in for the only tally the Avs would see tonight.

Notes: Duchene scored his 19th goal of the season and still leads all Avalanche with 44 points. Ryan O’Byrne had a great game as far as hitting and getting under the Preds skin. Cody McLeod also got in a few scrums tonight, adding to the agitation of their Western Conference opponents.

What did you think? Should Sacco recall Galiardi? How did Stoa do tonight?

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