Cody Glass Notches the Hat Trick vs Avs, Nashville Predators Surge Continues

There's no slowing down the Nashville Predators right now, winners of eight-straight and taking sole possession of the Western Conference's top wildcard position.

Cody Glass' rocky road throughout his NHL career has been well-documented, and two different stints on the injured list really hampered his development with a new Head Coach in Andrew Brunette.

Everything came back around for Glass last night, notching his first NHL hat tricky and doing it in decisive fashion. Finding open spots in the Avalanche's defensive alignment, skating with aggression and just having that determination to have one of the best games of his NHL career.

Glass finished with a team-leading six shots on goal to go along with his three goals. His first goal of the evening came at 15:18 of the first period after finding an open spot in the slot and burying it past Alexandar Georgiev. Credit to Ryan McDonagh for getting the play started, and Colton Sissons with the primary assist.

After the Avalanche pulled back to a tie game at the first intermission, Glass came back with his second goal of the game after yet again finding the high danger area and having his teammates find him. This time the primary assist Tommy Novak.

After the Avalanche did their best to stay in the game, because you can never count them out, the Predators really began to dictate the pace. They controlled much of the possession in the third period and held the Avalanche to only seven shots on Juuse Saros in the final frame.

Glass, in perfect fashion, nailed the slick empty net goal to claim the hat trick at 19:07 of the third period. This was after the Avalanche were already in desperation mode after back-to-back power play goals from Ryan O'Reilly and Tommy Novak.

The postgame interview with Bally Sports Preds and Kara Hammer was enough to get the water works flowing after knowing what Glass has been through in his hockey journey. And the Smashville faithful got about as loud as it's been for a postgame interview in a very long time.

The Predators are now 2-0-0 against the Avalanche this season and only seven points back of third place in the Central Division. The Predators are also 5-3-0 against Colorado, Dallas and Winnipeg on the season.

According the MoneyPuck's daily playoff odds, the Predators have moved upwards of 75 percent chance of making the playoffs now after being below 25 percent before the eight-game winning streak began.

Other standouts from the game included Novak with a goal and an assist to push his season totals to 13 goals and 21 assists in 51 games.

Sissons has already passed his NHL career high for points in a season, and added another assists to put his total at 32 points.

Then there's Saros who has flipped the switch back into the elite level goalie we know him to be. He was is one of the hottest goalies in the NHL over this win streak. He made 25 saves on 26 shots faced and finished with a 1.08 Goals Saved Above Expected.

The Predators now have the second-longest winning streak in franchise history, tied with the eight in a row the 2005-06 team had which was led by Paul Kariya and Steve Sullivan. The new record would be 11 in a row, with their next three opponents being the Canadiens, Sabres and Blue Jackets.