The streaky Avalanche lost for the third time in a row on Saturday, falling 5-2 to the Nashville Predators at Bridgestone Arena.

The Avs again played without six of their top 10 forwards, something they’re hoping will change on Tuesday when they host the Seattle Kraken and expect to have Artturi Lehkonen back. But unlike their last game, Colorado started strong and even scored the first goal. Unfortunately for Jared Bednar’s team, that ended up being the only one until late in the third period. The Avs started the season with four straight losses before winning five straight games. And since then, the losing streak is at three games.

Cale Makar and Nathan MacKinnon had Colorado’s goals. Makar’s was a snipe with the Avs playing 4-on-3. And MacKinnon’s came late in the third period while on a 6-on-5 attack. Both Casey Mittelstadt and MacKinnon were credited with assists on the opening goal, which means Makar and MacKinnon’s season-opening point streaks were both extended to 12 games.

The Avs went back to Justus Annunen between the pipes after giving him two days off. Annunen made 20 saves but was outplayed by Nashville’s Juuse Saros. More on him shortly. Colorado has used each of its three goalies during the losing streak as Alexandar Georgiev started on Monday, Kaapo Kahkonen on Wednesday, and Justus Annunen on Saturday.

Bednar also made a couple of other changes to his lineup. First, defenseman Calvin de Haan, who was often a healthy scratch last season with Tampa Bay, sat for a game in favor of John Ludvig. It’s the second time that de Haan has been healthy scratched by the Avs. Ludvig was paired with Sam Malinski on the third pair. The other two pairings remained the same as they were against the Lightning, with Samuel Girard playing with Makar and Devon Toews on the second pair with Josh Manson.

The other change came at forward. Following Matt Stienburg’s two-game suspension and reassignment back to the AHL, Colorado called up Nikita Prishchepov. The Russian forward made his NHL debut and deserves to be highlighted for his performance. More on that below.

Nashville had goals from Steven Stamkos, Colton Sissons, and Roman Josi. The trio had just one goal combined entering the matchup against the Avalanche. Filip Forsberg and Gustav Nyquist both scored later on the empty net.

Colorado fell to 5-7-0 on the season.

Bad: Avs running into another hot goalie

Juuse Saros kind of looked like a poor man’s Dominik Hasek on Saturday. The Hall of Fame goalie made a career out of flopping around the crease, but it was just the way he played. In Saros’ case, there was a lot of puck luck that went his way. Any way you shake it, he had a strong game, but it was total chaos. Saros was flopping around the crease, fighting for rebounds, and desperately reaching to keep the puck out of the net. He even had help from his post and teammate Filip Forsberg sweeping a puck off the goal line.

The unfortunate part for Bednar’s club was that they once again ran into a hot goalie. Against Tampa Bay, Colorado trailed by as many as three goals but still could’ve found their way back into the game had it not been for Andrei Vasilevskiy. But against the Preds, it was a different kind of frustration. This was a winnable game until the very end.

The Avs scored first, and even before that, they had several opportunities to get ahead earlier in the game. After Makar’s tally, they had a handful of opportunities to go up by two or to regain the lead after Stamkos made it 1-1. Nikita Prishchepov alone had three solid scoring chances.

Saros finished the night with 28 saves as Colorado outshot Nashville 30-25.

Good: Nikita Prishchepov

Let’s talk about the rookie — the 20-year-old who went from being drafted No. 217 overall in June to making his NHL debut just over four months later. I wrote about Prishchepov before the game and how he’s the first seventh-round pick since the 2020 draft to play — how he’s also just the second seventh-rounder since 2005 to go from being drafted to playing in the NHL in the same year. Several of the comments were quick to point out his older age and how he’s only getting an opportunity because Colorado has five injuries and two suspensions to its forward group. That’s all true, yes. But in the NHL, you need to make the most of your opportunity no matter how it arises.

Prishchepov did just that. Given the circumstances, he was incredible in his NHL debut. Not only did he have three solid opportunities to score, but every single one of them came in and around the crease. He also plays a heavy game and was throwing his body around quite well. It’s exactly the type of debut you’d want to see from a kid who just might be a player in the future. Prishchepov turned heads at training camp and likely made a good impression again on Saturday. Solid debut for the kid.