Colorado Avalanche head coach Jared Bednar said Thursday his team was given the option to postpone their game against Nashville Predators but elected to play in the eventual 5-2 loss.

Avalanche defenceman Cale Makar and goaltender Darcy Kuemper entered the league's COVID-19 protocol just before puck drop, leaving the team to play two skaters short with an emergency backup behind goaltender Pavel Francouz.

"I just went to our players and said, 'Hey what do you guys want to do?'," Bednar said. "Like I said, `We're here to play a game.' They were shorthanded, we were shorthanded. We're not using COVID as an excuse. We're here to win a hockey game. We had plenty of capable bodies in the lineup."  

The Predators iced a lineup featuring several AHL call-ups with seven of their skaters and five members of the coaching staff in the protocol.

"It was weird," Nashville captain Roman Josi said. "We were just kind of sitting there [before the game]. It was kind of out of our control. But I don't think any one of us ever went through something like that. It was definitely something we've never experienced."

The game was played as the number of players in the COVID-19 protocol continues to rise around the league. Thirteen players were added to the protocol on Thursday, one day after 22 players joined the list on Wednesday.

Nick Cousins, one of the Predators currently sidelined in the protocol, questioned prior to Thursday's game whether the league should postpone play until after Christmas.

"We came to play a hockey game here," Avalanche forward Mikko Rantanen said. "Obviously it was kind of questions in the air during the day because guys were dropping. But we had enough guys to play a hockey game and that's what we did."