Defenseman Tyson Barrie will play Saturday after a one-game absence when the Avalanche meet Nashville to open their two-game weekend road trip. Chris Bigras will be scratched.

Barrie missed Thursday's 6-2 win against Washington because of an upper-body injury. He has two goals and 12 assists in 16 games.

Here are the GAME NOTES.

Center Dominic Toninato, recalled Friday from San Antonio, will make his NHL debut. He'll be on a line with Sven Andrighetto and Nail Yakupov.

Defenseman Samuel Girard will play against the Predators for the first time since they traded him to the Avalanche as part of the three-team trade Nov. 5 in which Matt Duchene was sent to Ottawa. Nashville acquired center Kyle Turris from the Senators in the trade.

Girard, who is on the top pair with Erik Johnson, has two assists and a plus-3 rating in three games with the Avalanche while averaging 22:02 in ice time.

"That's what we want when we're hockey players, we want to play," Girard told reporters after the morning skate. "We want to be on the ice. We want to help the team to win, so I'm pretty happy to have a lot of ice time here and to help the team to win."

Girard has a goal and four assists in eight games overall. The Avalanche could return him to the Shawinigan Cataractes of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League if he doesn't play in his 10th NHL game, which would be Sunday in Detroit. Coach Jared Bednar has said he expects Girard will remain with Colorado.

Semyon Varlamov will start in goal in Nashville.

The Predators have won seven consecutive games against the Avalanche, including a 4-1 win Oct. 17.

The Avalanche lineup:

FORWARDS
Gabriel Landeskog -- Nathan MacKinnon -- Mikko Rantanen
Colin Wilson -- Alexander Kerfoot -- J.T. Compher
Matt Nieto -- Carl Soderberg -- Blake Comeau
Sven Andrighetto -- Dominic Toninato -- Nail Yakupov

DEFENSE
Samuel Girard -- Erik Johnson
Andrei Mironov -- Tyson Barrie
Nikita Zadorov -- Mark Barberio

GOALIES
Semyon Varlamov
Jonathan Bernier



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