Expert recap and game analysis of the Colorado Avalanche vs. Seattle Kraken NHL game from December 16, 2025 on ESPN.

Before the great Cale Makar wore No. 8, there was another No. 8 who was pretty great. Ahead of the 1996 Stanley Cup-winning Avalanche team being honored Dec. 11, the current No. 8 showed some respect to the man who came before him.

Ryan O'Reilly scored the clinching goal in the shootout for the Nashville Predators, who beat the Colorado Avalanche 4-3 on Dec. 9.

Colorado is by far the best team in hockey, and my Avalanche vs. Kraken predictions and NHL picks expect that dominance to continue. The Colorado Avalanche are on pace for a historic season, as they have just two regulation losses through their first 32 games. Unsurprisingly, they rank first in the majority of statistics across the board.

The Colorado Avalanche look by far and above the rest of the NHL right now. Night after night, they skate teams into exhaustion, overwhelm them with speed, and

On Dec. 11, Steven Stamkos tied a franchise record with four goals against the St. Louis Blues in a 7-2 win for the Predators. Nashville (12-14-4, 28 points) has won six of its last eight games but is still in eighth place in the Central Division.

The Florida Panthers ran into a buzzsaw on Thursday night. Playing the back end of a back-to-back set, Florida was shellacked by the NHL-best Colorado Avalanche by a final score of 6-2. Colorado jumped out to an early 1-0 lead when they scored on their first rush of the night.

The Colorado Avalanche are setting the pace, but Quinn Hughes’ move to the Minnesota Wild has a star in Denver excited for even tougher Central Division battles.