NASHVILLE — Scott Wedgewood has been one of the great stories in the NHL at the start of the 2025-26 season, to the point where Mackenzie Blackwood has not had the chance to work through some injury-related rust with a typical starter’s workload.

Blackwood picked a great time to have his best game of the young season Saturday night. The Colorado Avalanche struggled at times in front of him, but Blackwood was outstanding with 35 saves in a 3-0 victory against the Nashville Predators at Bridgestone Arena.

“It just feels more comfortable,” Blackwood said. “Not panicking, not reacting, just feels like I can read the play a lot better. Lots of things were good. Got lucky a couple times, but overall I was happy with the reads and the way the game felt.”

It wasn’t pretty, but the Avs have now won eight straight games and are 10-0-2 in the past 12. Nathan MacKinnon scored his league-leading 17th goal into an empty net, and Jack Drury added another empty-netter as the Avs pushed their league-leading record to 15-1-5.

“It wasn’t very good, I’ll tell you that,” Avs coach Jared Bednar said. “It got better as we turned the page to the second period and tried to start the game over. The first period was horrendous.

“We got one good forecheck, one shot on goal that gave us the lead and then we didn’t check anybody.”

The Avs certainly started fast. A shot from the right halfwall by Brent Burns beat Juuse Saros just 15 seconds into this contest. It was Burns’ second goal with the Avalanche.

Colorado leads the NHL with five opening-minute goals this season. All of them have come in the past 10 contests.

“Good forecheck. I don’t know, I didn’t really do much,” Burns said. “Puck came to me from guys turning it over and I tried to get it on net. It was nice to see it go in.”

The remaining 19:45 of the opening period was the Blackwood show. Nashville finished the opening frame with a 16-7 advantage in shots on goal.

Colorado has been the league’s top possession team, leading the NHL in several advanced stats at 5-on-5. The Avs had one of their worst periods of the season on that front. Nashville had 75% of the shot attempts (24-8) at 5-on-5, and created 84.98% of the expected goals, according to Natural Stat Trick.

“I thought we looked a little slow,” captain Gabe Landeskog said. “I thought our execution was off and we were giving up odd-man rushes and scoring chances. That’s pretty uncharacteristic for us.”

The Avs were better in the second period, but still far from the machine-like efficiency that helped them become the fourth team in league history to play 20 games with only one loss in regulation.

There were changes on the power play. Landeskog joined the top unit for the first time this season, replacing Victor Olofsson. Martin Necas shifted over to the right flank, with Landeskog and Artturi Lehkonen in the middle. The changes did not produce immediate results — Colorado was 0 for 2 with the man advantage.

While the power play has been inconsistent, the penalty kill has been outstanding for much of the season. The PK bounced back after yielding a pair of goals to the New York Rangers two nights ago. Nashville went 0 for 3 with only one shot on goal — two fewer than the Avs had while shorthanded.

When the Avs haven’t been at their best this season, it’s typically been Wedgewood who has helped keep the hot start rolling. Blackwood wasn’t ready to start the season, and his play hadn’t been up to the same standard he set last year after arriving in a trade from San Jose.

This looked more like the best version of Blackwood. He made athletic saves. He made tough stops look easy. There was little in the way of rebounds for the Predators to capitalize on.

“I’m trying and struggling to find my game with limited touches, but that’s the way it goes sometimes,” Blackwood said. “Scotty’s been playing amazing, so he’s earned the right to play, and you have to find the chances that you get and take advantage of the opportunities.

“Last year, I was in a good spot, reading the plays well, playing games, lots of confidence. I heard that quote, ‘Success (is never owned, it is rented and) the rent is due every day.’ I’ve just got to put in the work.”

FOOTNOTES: The Avs announced rookie Gavin Brindley is week-to-week with a lower-body injury before this game. He’s expected to be re-evaluated in a few weeks. Jason Polin made his season debut in Brindley’s place. … Colorado coach Jared Bednar said during Altitude’s pregame radio show that two of the Avs’ injured forwards, Valeri Nichushkin and Joel Kiviranta, could return as soon as next weekend.

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