The Colorado Avalanche is the heaviest-favored team to win on a night that all 32 teams are playing.
The Hockey News' Rachel Doerrie's prediction model, Kevin, has the Colorado Avalanche at a 69% favor of beating the New York Islanders. That is the highest percentage for a team on Frozen Frenzy night with all 32 teams playing.
The Avalanche are undefeated after five going into Tuesday's game at UBS Arena while the Isles are 2-1-1 in their first four. It will be a test for the Avs to shut down the Islanders defensively, which is something Mikko Rantanen said his team needed to work on.
"Sometimes at home you want to play for your crowd offensive hockey," Rantanen said before the team left for their road trip. He said being in a building with a crowd against them may help ramp up their defensive side to shut down the opposing team — which certainly quiets down an arena.
Doerrie said the Isles have had trouble shutting down top players in their start to the season, and with the elite players on the Avalanche, it will be a very difficult feat for them — even in their home barn.
Alexandar Georgiev has been stellar for the Avalanche only allowing eight goals in five games and earning a shutout against the Chicago Blackhawks. He was named the second star in the NHL's three stars of the week and "paces the NHL with 45 wins in 67 contests since the start of 2022-23 (45‑16-6, 2.46 GAA, .920 SV%, 6 SO)."
The model predicted a final of 4-2 in favor of the Avalanche. With the win, the team would tie its record for longest undefeated start to a season at six, which they did in 2013-14. It would also set a new NHL record for longest consecutive road wins spanning seasons at 15.