Colorado acquired the 27-year-old Russian forward right before the trade deadline from the Nashville Predators and he is ready to battle against his old team.
Forward Yakov Trenin will battle against his former team for the first time when the Colorado Avalanche face off against the Nashville Predators on Saturday afternoon.
Trenin and the rights to unsigned prospect Graham Sward were acquired from the Predators in exchange for defenseman Jeremy Hanzel and Colorado's 2025 third-round draft pick on March 7.
"It's definitely unusual. I'll be a little bit extra nervous but I hope we're going to put them on a new streak — losing streak, enough winning for them," Trenin said about facing his old team.
The Predators beat the Avalanche twice — 4-3 on Nov. 20 5-1 on and March 2 — at Bridgestone Arena. This is the third and final matchup but is expected to be a high energy game.
"Yeah definitely, they've been so hot lately — 16, one, two, I think. We fight them, we might face them in (the) playoffs, you know, so we got to send the message earlier," Trenin said. "It's a battle, it matter — every hit — full effort, for sure."
Nashville has only lost one game in regulation in March and that was the team's last outing. While Colorado is coming off the overtime loss to the New York Rangers, Nathan MacKinnon said he felt the team played well enough to have won.
"I think we're playing pretty solid. The last game, thought we played good enough to win just didn't go our way," MacKinnon said.
The elite center said the Predators will be a tough opponent but he welcomes the challenge to prepare ahead for the playoffs.
"They're (Predators) one of the best teams in the league as well. Yeah they've been rolling so it's going to be a really challenging game," MacKinnon said. "A lot of games here are against really good teams — it's great, I think it's awesome that we're playing tough competition before it gets even harder."
Projected lineup
Due to the earlier start — puck drops at 4 p.m. MT — there was no morning skate. Forward Valeri Nichushkin did not participate in practice on Friday and head coach Jared Bednar said he was still out with a lower-body injury. The lineup will most likely remain the same from the Rangers game.
Jonathan Drouin — Nathan MacKinnon — Mikko Rantanen
Brandon Duhaime — Casey Mittelstadt — Artturi Lehkonen
Miles Wood — Ross Colton — Zach Parise
Andrew Cogliano — Yakov Trenin — Jean-Luc Foudy
Devon Toews — Cale Makar
Samuel Girard — Josh Manson
Jack Johnson — Sean Walker
Alexandar Georgiev
Justus Annunen
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