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DENVER (AP) The Nashville Predators didn’t break out the bubbly or anything rowdy like that after becoming the first NHL team to clinch a playoff spot this season.”Business as usual Adidas Tim Schaller Jersey ,” defenseman Ryan Ellis said of the low-key celebration that included some pizza. ”Back to work.”Colton Sissons and Filip Forsberg each scored twice, backup goaltender Juuse Saros stopped 33 shots and the Predators secured their postseason berth by beating the Colorado Avalanche 4-2 on Friday night.The streaking Predators are 13-0-1 in their last 14 games and haven’t lost in regulation since Feb. 17 against Detroit.”The guys knew with a win tonight we would clinch and I think they fought hard for it,” coach Peter Laviolette said. ”I really liked our game tonight.”Starting goalie Pekka Rinne was given the night off after helping Nashville to a win Thursday at Arizona. The team didn’t miss a beat with Saros in net.Nathan MacKinnon and Gabriel Landeskog had the goals for a Colorado team that returned home after earning two straight road wins, including Thursday in St. Louis. The loss snapped Colorado’s string of nine straight games with a point. The squad still remains in the thick of the playoff chase.Semyon Varlamov turned back 24 shots as he started both games of a back-to-back for the first time this season.”There’s no rest at this time of the year. We have to make a push,” Varlamov said. ”Nashville’s a really good team, tough to play against, but I think we played strong today, had a really good game. We just didn’t score. We had a couple good chances at the end.”MacKinnon nearly tied the game late in the third period, but his shot hit off the shoulder of Saros. Nashville also weathered two penalties by P.K. Subban in the final period. Colorado pulled Varlamov in the final two minutes and it led to a game-sealing goal by Forsberg into an empty net with 1:09 remaining.Landeskog gave the Avalanche a 2-1 lead in the second, but Forsberg tied it three minutes later. Sissons put the Predators up for good when his shot clanged off the crossbar and dropped into the net.The Predators have at least one point in a franchise-best 14 consecutive road games.”We’re just working hard. We played last night, got in late, but everybody’s here, everybody’s working hard,” Forsberg said. ”It doesn’t have to be pretty. Get the job done.”It was a rare home loss for Colorado, which is 14-2-1 over its last 17 games at the Pepsi Center. Then again Adidas Jay Beagle Jersey , the Predators have long given their Central Division rival fits. They’ve won 10 straight over the Avalanche, including six in a row in Denver.”They might be one of the better teams in the league, no doubt,” Landeskog said. ”For us, it’s just a matter of learning from this one and moving on.”Sissons scored in the first period by sending in a shot off Varlamov’s shoulder. With just under a minute remaining in the period, MacKinnon fired in a shot to tie it at 1. It was his NHL-leading 60th point at home.MacKinnon’s goal was set up by a pass from Tyson Barrie, who ran his point streak to nine games and matched the longest by an Avalanche defenseman since the team moved to town in 1995-96.”You have to be happy with our effort,” Colorado coach Jared Bednar said.Laviolette felt the same way, and took a measure of pride in becoming the first team to clinch. Now, about that muted celebration.”There’s no champagne in there,” he said. ”We’re moving on.”NOTES: Nashville improved to 7-1-1 in the second game of a back-to-back this season, while Colorado dropped to 3-7-0. … Avalanche D Erik Johnson (upper body) and Bernier skated Friday. … F Vladislav Kamenev (arm) will return to Denver this weekend after being loaned to San Antonio of the American Hockey League on a conditioning assignment. … Alpine ski racer Lindsey Vonn attended the game. She earned a bronze medal in the downhill at the Pyeongchang Olympics.UP NEXTPredators: Finish a three-game trip at Buffalo on Monday.Avalanche: Host the Detroit Red Wings on Sunday.— Several signings and one big trade drastically shifted the balance of power across the NHL in a matter of days.With John Tavares going home to Toronto, Paul Stastny leaving Winnipeg for Vegas, St. Louis signing three free agents and trading for Ryan O’Reilly, the landscape of the league has changed. The Washington Capitals are bringing back a vast majority of their team Adidas Curtis McKenzie Jersey , the Western Conference is loaded and yet the Maple Leafs now appear to be Stanley Cup favorites after adding Tavares.”He’s one of the best players in the league,” Tampa Bay general manager Steve Yzerman said. ”And I think it’s obvious to say that Toronto is a better team today with that acquisition.”Tavares’ decision to leave the New York Islanders knocks them out of contender status and puts a whole lot of pressure on coach Mike Babcock’s Maple Leafs to make a deep playoff run. Losing out on Tavares despite reportedly offering more money than the Maple Leafs’ $77 million over 11 years kept the Sharks from moving into front-runner status in the West – but they may not be done yet.”We pride ourselves on being able to take a swing on difference makers like this,” San Jose GM Doug Wilson said. ”John was the one that we wanted to swing at.”The Sharks, who extended Logan Couture and re-signed Joe Thornton and Tomas Hertl to keep their core together, have plenty of tradable assets and will keep swinging for a difference-maker. One is off the market following the Blues‘ trade for O’Reilly that now gives them a potent 1-2-3 punch down the middle with Brayden Schenn and free agent signing Tyler Bozak.O’Reilly saw the Blues sign Bozak to a $15 million, three-year contract and wondered if there wasn’t room for him anymore. Now they have centers to match up with just about any opponent in the league.”You look at all the teams that have success, they definitely have guys down the middle that compete,” O’Reilly said Monday. ”And I’m thrilled to be a part of that.”The Capitals boasted depth with Evgeny Kuznetsov, Nicklas Backstrom and Lars Eller during their Cup run, and Babcock can now roll out Tavares, Auston Matthews and Nazem Kadri. Vegas lost talent on the wing with David Perron going to St. Louis and James Neal signing with Calgary but now has a very competitive center corps led by Stastny, William Karlsson and Erik Haula.”We do like having centers,” Golden Knights GM George McPhee said. ”You can move centers around the lineup, you can have centers on the wing. You can’t get wingers to play center.”Here’s a look at where a few more teams stand early in the preparations for the 2018-19 season:GOT WHAT THEY NEEDLIGHTNING: Signing Tavares would’ve been a luxury and might’ve necessitated a roster makeover just to fit him under the salary cap. Tampa Bay signed restricted free agent forward J.T. Miller to a long term deal, extended defenseman Ryan McDonagh Adidas Nick Holden Jersey , got a deal done with Slater Koekkoek and should have much of the same team that won the Atlantic Division last season.”We try to improve our team,” Yzerman said. ”I don’t sense that we have a need to change just to change.”FLAMES: Inking Neal to a $28.75 million, five-year contract would be a nice capper to the Flames‘ offseason that began with acquiring center Elias Lindholm and defenseman Noah Hanifin from Carolina. New coach Bill Peters could put Neal or Lindholm on right wing with Johnny Gaudreau and Sean Monahan.GM Brad Treliving’s final tasks this offseason are to find a backup goaltender to Mike Smith and sign restricted free agents Lindholm and Hanifin to new contracts.KINGS: Long-term , signing franchise defenseman Drew Doughty to an $88 million, eight-year extension is the most important thing Los Angeles did. In the shorter term, it also won the competition for returning Russian winger Ilya Kovalchuk, who GM Rob Blake believes can play with either top-six center, Anze Kopitar or Jeff Carter, and produce at age 35.”That scoring-type winger was something that we needed to add,” Blake said. ”Where he plays on the power play and the way he scores goals with his shot I think is something we’ve coveted or looked for.”WORK LEFT TO DOSENATORS: They traded Mike Hoffman, bought out Alexandre Burrows but still have at least one big problem with the future of Norris Trophy-winning defenseman Erik Karlsson. The Senators have reportedly given Karlsson’s camp permission to speak with other teams about a contract – which is expected to look a whole lot like Doughty’s deal – which would open to door to Ottawa trading its captain rather than losing him for nothing like the Islanders did when Tavares wouldn’t sign early.”We start Oct. 4,” GM Pierre Dorion said Sunday in Ottawa. ”We’ve got lots of time.”OILERS: Connor McDavid won the scoring title and the Ted Lindsay award as the players’ choice for most outstanding player, and yet Edmonton missed the playoffs by 17 points. GM Peter Chiarelli publicly dangled the 10th pick in the draft to try to get an offensive defenseman and hasn’t been able to acquire one yet.Meanwhile, left wing Milan Lucic is 30, coming off a 34-point dud of a season and still has five years left on his contract at a $6 million annual cap hit. Lucic’s name has come up in trade talks Adidas Paul Stastny Jersey , but moving him now won’t be easy, so the Oilers have to prepare for life with him next season.”He’s a proud guy and we expect to have him back and at a better level than he was last year,” Chiarelli said. ”My confidence level is pretty high. I think Milan’s a high-character individual.”ISLANDERS: Without Tavares, New York is chock full of cap space with nothing to do with it. Ownership signaled the need for change by hiring Lou Lamoriello as president of hockey operations, and he in turn fired Garth Snow and Doug Weight, hired Barry Trotz and put on a full neutral-zone trap to keep Tavares.After striking out, Lamoriello took what could be perceived as a shot at Tavares and the previous regime by saying, ”John has achieved great individual success on the ice” with the Islanders, who missed the playoffs in six of Tavares’ nine seasons. Without a Lamoriello miracle this offseason , they’ll miss the playoffs for the 12th time in 15 years.—