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PREDATORS (7-3-5) at AVALANCHE (5-7-1)

TV: NHLN-US, FS-TN, ALT

Last 10: Nashville 6-2-2; Colorado 3-6-1.

Season series: This is the first of three meetings. Nashville swept the season series in 2011-12.

Big story: The Avalanche will look to rebound from a 6-4 loss on Saturday night in Edmonton, while Nashville enters with the League’s best defense and Vezina Trophy frontrunner Pekka Rinne.

Team scope:

Predators: In Rinne, the Predators trust. After a shaky start to the season, Nashville has steadied itself thanks to the hulking Finn. Rinne has three shutouts in his past five outings and his strong play, coupled with Nashville’s suffocating defense, resulted in a three-game winning streak heading into Anaheim on Saturday. He enjoyed another strong outing against the Ducks, saving 20 of 22 in regulation. The Predators matched Anaheim with goals from David Legwand and Shea Weber, the latter notching his first of the season, but the Ducks prevailed in the shootout.

"We played a pretty good game against a pretty good team," coach Barry Trotz said. "Both times we have played them, it has gone to a shootout. Unfortunately, we haven't been on the positive side yet on that shootout, but did we play well? Yeah, absolutely."

Avalanche: Last Thursday in Minnesota, the Avalanche came from behind to beat the Wild in a shootout. But against Edmonton on Saturday, Colorado couldn't hold a 4-1 lead as the Oilers came roaring back and won 6-4.

"Losing is losing, but this isn't the way you want to lose games," Avs head coach Joe Sacco said. "You're going to lose games here and there, but not the way we lost tonight. It's unacceptable.

"We got what we deserved tonight. We gave up close to 60 shots tonight. That's something we're not proud of as a group."

A bright spot in the game for Colorado was the play of goaltender Semyon Varlamov, who stopped 50 shots - the second-most on Avalanche team history.

Who’s hot: Duchene has a goal in his past three games. … Weber might finally be heating up, with a goal and assist in his past two games to bring his season point total to three.

Injury report: For Nashville, Patric Hornqvist has a knee injury and is expected back later this month. … Colorado's Erik Johnson (head), Ryan Wilson (leg) and Gabriel Landeskog (head) are out indefinitely.