Colorado Avalanche vs New Jersey Devils Picks, Prediction, Odds, and Line Movement for Tuesday October 20 2026

Colorado closes a short East Coast swing in Newark on Tuesday against a New Jersey team that has had substantially more recovery time. The Avalanche are 5-3-1 after a 3-2 loss at Philadelphia on Monday, making this the second half of a back-to-back. The Devils are 4-4-0 after a 4-2 defeat to Washington on Saturday. With Colorado near -110 and New Jersey close to even money, bettors are being asked whether the Avalanche's elite top-end scoring is enough to overcome fatigue and a rested opponent's home advantage.

Nathan MacKinnon has produced six goals and ten assists through nine games, giving Colorado a reliable way to attack even when other lines are not finishing. Artturi Lehkonen has also scored six times, while Cale Makar has three goals and nine points from the blue line. Martin Necas scored in Monday's loss and continues to offer a second dangerous entry option alongside MacKinnon. Colorado's ability to transition quickly through MacKinnon, Necas and its defensemen creates matchup problems that few teams can solve for a full sixty minutes.

The loss in Philadelphia also exposed the downside of chasing a game. The Avalanche trailed early after Matvei Michkov scored on the power play, and they were forced to push repeatedly through the neutral zone. Necas scored in the second period, and T.J. Hughes made it 3-2 late in the third, but Colorado could not find the equalizer. Mackenzie Blackwood played Monday, making the Tuesday goalie rotation important. Scott Wedgewood has been projected for this game, although a projection should not be presented as a team confirmation.

New Jersey has enough speed to exploit tired legs. Jack Hughes leads the Devils with nine points through eight games, and Nico Hischier has scored four goals, including three on the power play. Jesper Bratt supplies pace and playmaking, while Arseny Gritsyuk has contributed three goals in his last four contests. The Devils want to force Colorado into repeated puck retrievals and use their extra rest to tilt the third period. They cannot, however, count on controlling the game simply by winning the first ten minutes.

The Devils' 4-2 loss in Washington illustrated the problem. Gritsyuk opened the scoring before the Capitals answered with four straight goals. Timo Meier scored late on the power play, but New Jersey struggled to halt the opponent's momentum once the first defensive mistakes appeared. The Devils have used Jake Allen and Nico Daws in goal, with Tuesday's assignment not universally confirmed in early reports. Their penalty kill has also been vulnerable, a poor matchup against the puck movement of Makar and MacKinnon.

Colorado should seek controlled entries and avoid turning the game into a pure track meet after Monday's demanding finish. New Jersey wants to pressure the Avalanche below their own goal line and draw penalties from a tired road defense. The matchup may swing on the first power play: Colorado has enough high-end shooters to punish an unsettled kill, while Hughes and Hischier can make the Avalanche pay if they are careless. This is likely to be much more competitive than a simple comparison of star players would suggest.

The price is important. Colorado was quoted near -109 in the initial comparison and roughly -110 on an early sportsbook comparison; later comparisons were in the same narrow neighborhood. At that number, the Avalanche do not require a heavy-favorite level of confidence. New Jersey is fresher and should challenge them, but Colorado's offensive ceiling and its ability to change a game with one sequence make a narrow road win credible. Chasing the Avalanche to a substantially shorter price would make far less sense.

The rest gap deserves emphasis because the Avalanche had to fight until the final seconds in Philadelphia. A tired defenseman can make the wrong read on a Jack Hughes rush, and a poorly managed shift can produce a power play at the worst possible time. Colorado therefore needs its second scoring line, with Landeskog, Nelson and Kadri, to win meaningful territorial minutes rather than leaving everything to MacKinnon's group. New Jersey's best chance is to isolate the Avalanche's bottom six; Colorado's answer is to keep its transition attack distributed and avoid taking penalties after long defensive shifts.

Best Bet: Colorado Avalanche moneyline -115 or better. The rest disadvantage is real, and Blackwood's Monday appearance creates goalie-rotation uncertainty. Nevertheless, MacKinnon, Makar, Lehkonen and Necas give Colorado a stronger finishing group than most teams at a near-even price. The preference is for the Avalanche to win a competitive, high-skill game rather than to cover a puck line.