Glass, a light-scoring forward, entered the contest with two goals in 33 games this season but doubled that total by securing his first career multi-goal game through the two periods. He then added an empty-netter for his first hat trick in his five-year career.

Tommy Novak had a goal and an assist, Ryan O’Reilly scored his 22nd of the season and Juuse Saros made 25 saves for the Predators.

Nashville has outscored its opponents 37-13 — and tallied at least four goals in every game — while matching the second-longest winning streak in franchise history.

Meanwhile, Colorado was held mostly in check after scoring five goals apiece to win its previous two games. However, star Nathan MacKinnon continued a stellar season by recording his 37th goal and 101st point to extend a point streak that has reached nine games.

Nashville nearly opened the scoring with a little more than seven minutes remaining in the first period, but Colorado netminder Alexandar Georgiev (30 saves) saved Mark Jankowski’s breakaway attempt. However, the Predators did manage to strike first when Glass converted a give-and-go with Colton Sissons with 4:42 left in the first.

MacKinnon, though, continued his latest torrid offensive stretch when he sniped the puck past Saros for a goal in his third straight contest with 2:59 left in the first. He has five goals and 11 assists in his last nine games.

Glass then put Nashville up again with 5:34 remaining in the second. Moments after Saros came up with a key stop on Josh Mason’s redirect, Glass went down to a knee to successfully one-time Novak’s pass into the slot.

Then with 10:14 left in regulation, ex-Avalanche player Ryan O’Reilly was in the perfect spot to tap up a hard carom of the puck off the end boards for his 22nd goal to give the Predators some breathing room. Novak followed via his own power-play score with 2:28 remaining before Glass scored his third.

Meanwhile, Colorado was held mostly in check after scoring five goals apiece to win its previous two games. However, star Nathan MacKinnon continued a stellar season by recording his 37th goal and 101st point to extend a point streak that has reached nine games.

Nashville nearly opened the scoring with a little more than seven minutes remaining in the first period, but Colorado netminder Alexandar Georgiev (30 saves) saved Mark Jankowski’s breakaway attempt. However, the Predators did manage to strike first when Glass converted a give-and-go with Colton Sissons with 4:42 left in the first.

MacKinnon, though, continued his latest torrid offensive stretch when he sniped the puck past Saros for a goal in his third straight contest with 2:59 left in the first. He has five goals and 11 assists in his last nine games.

Glass then put Nashville up again with 5:34 remaining in the second. Moments after Saros came up with a key stop on Josh Mason’s redirect, Glass went down to a knee to successfully one-time Novak’s pass into the slot.

Then with 10:14 left in regulation, ex-Avalanche player Ryan O’Reilly was in the perfect spot to tap up a hard carom of the puck off the end boards for his 22nd goal to give the Predators some breathing room. Novak followed via his own power-play score with 2:28 remaining before Glass scored his third.

The second period wasn’t great, but the third period was pretty unacceptable. Down a goal, the game was still well within reach, but the Avalanche looked like they had nothing in the tank, despite it being a relatively short two game road trip. The Nashville Predators won every race to the puck, outworked Colorado, and when the Avalanche did have an opportunity to make a play, their passing was horrendous. In one of the rare instances they created a rush opportunity, Miles Wood sent it behind his teammate on the wall, sending Nashville the other way.

Nashville is on a run right now, so you do have to give them credit, but it’s one thing to be outplayed. It’s another thing entirely to get outworked the way Colorado was. That’s the stuff that frustrated everyone.

 Cale Makar

There’s no way that he’s 100%, right?

On the Predators second goal, with seemingly no one around him, he just fell over. That led to a turnover, which led to possession time for Nashville, and eventually, Makar (and others) left Cody Glass all alone in front of the net. At other points in the game, he just missed his passes in the offensive zone, and in the third period, he had a similar breakout where he just waited too long and handed it right to the Predators.

I don’t know if it needs to be said, but if this is the version of Makar the Avalanche are getting the rest of the way, I don’t think they can win the Stanley Cup. They need him to be elite, and he hasn’t looked like that in a while, certainly not in the defensive zone.

Since Logan O’Connor returned from injury, this line just has not looked the same. The energy hasn’t been there, the offensive production hasn’t, and they haven’t been the difference makers they were for most of the season.

On the first Nashville goal, Ross Colton worked to get back on the back check, but just didn’t cover anyone, resulting in a wide open Cody Glass. He also took a beating in the face-off circle.

This was bound to happen if they were going to continue to be used as the second line. They’re all good players, but they aren’t second liners, and eventually, that was going to get exposed by other teams. The return of Valeri Nichushkin next week, whenever he does re-enter the lineup, could change that pretty quickly, and I think we’ll see this trio look much better.

 Home-Ice Advantage Takes A Hit

Both the Jets and the Stars won on Saturday night, so the Avalanche did fall behind a little bit in the Central Division. It’s something we’ll just have to keep an eye on for the rest of the season, but Colorado really looks like they need that home-ice when the playoffs start.

They have three games at home this week, and all three are winnable. They’ve got to take advantage of that.

The Penalty Kill

Colorado probably still loses this game without special teams, but it’s been a rough couple of weeks for their penalty kill. For the majority of the season, they were top 10 and in no danger of falling out of it. Right now, they sit tied for 11th and have given up multiple powerplay goals in a game a few times over the last week. You can’t have your penalty kill struggling when the playoffs roll around. To me, a good penalty kill in the playoffs is more important than a good powerplay, so it’s something they need to get figured out.