Chemistry Key for Avs' Extended Stay in Edmonton

Colorado Avalanche players have been constantly together on and off the ice during the Phase 3 training camp, and most of them also skated with one another nearly every day in the final weeks of the Phase 2 voluntary skates in late June and early July.
In three days, the team leaves their family and friends in Denver and heads to Edmonton for what could be up to two and a half months in the NHL's bubble. While some of their immediate family might be able to join them later on in the Stanley Cup Playoffs, it will just be the players, coaches and trainers in the league's Western Conference secure zone.
So far, the players haven't gotten on each other's nerves, and Avalanche head coach Jared Bednar doesn't expect that to be the case once the club arrives at the hub city.

"I think you would be surprised at our guys, the amount of time they spend with one another on road trips," Bednar said. "Like we'll head out for 10-day road trips or seven-day road trips, and they'll spend every waking minute together, and then they'll land and they'll be together again the next night, next afternoon. So even on their days off these guys are hanging out together because they truly enjoy one another, and they enjoy hanging out with their teammates."
Avalanche captain Gabriel Landeskog said he and his teammates are looking forward to the trip and hope to still be in the bubble when summer turns to fall, which means they'll still be competing for a Stanley Cup.
"Knowing us and knowing our group and knowing the boys in there, our group is awesome," Landeskog said. "We love hanging out with one another and this just feels like a big, long minor hockey tournament where you're hanging out with the boys all the time. I guess the only difference would be that we're not going to be playing mini sticks in the hallway, but other than that it should be a fun experience, a cool experience. Obviously we're going there to take care of business."

Bednar noted that the players should relish this unique opportunity to be together, as the team chemistry the Avs have built over the last 11 months of the season and in the prior years could last a lifetime.
"It's one of the best parts of this game, the tightness of the group that you play with. Those are the things you don't want to take for granted because when your career is over and you look back on it, some of the best memories will be with your teammates and that's how I see our guys kind of approaching this thing," said Bednar, who won two ECHL championships as a player and then an ECHL and AHL title as a coach. "We're trying to win together and winning teams that are tight like that, they tend to stay in touch because of how tight they were and that's the type of group I feel like we have here."

SCRIMMAGE DAY

For the fourth time at this training camp, the Avalanche held an intrasquad scrimmage to help the club get back up to game speed
Team White shutout Team Burgundy 4-0 in Thursday's game, with Sheldon Dries scoring twice and defensemen Conor Timmins and Erik Johnson also picking up tallies. For what it's worth, Team White has won three of the four simulated contests at camp.
"I like the way that the second half of the scrimmage today got a lot better than the first," Landeskog said. "I liked a lot from what I've been seeing from most of the guys. Everybody's engaged, everybody's ready to go, it's not that rusty training camp look you know at the start of the season that you sometimes see. Everybody is excited. Everybody realizes that we have to crank it up as fast as we can, and guys are excited."

Nathan MacKinnon did not skate at practice, and coach Bednar wasn't able to give an update on the forward's status afterward. It could have just been a maintenance day for the center as MacKinnon had skated in each of the previous eight days of camp.
Both teams used three lines of forwards and five defensemen, with Bowen Byram being the extra rear guard for Burgundy while Anton Lindholm was the same for White. Jacob MacDonald, who is a defenseman, slotted in at forward--not uncommon for him at this training camp--on a trio with Sheldon Dries and Vladislav Kamenev.
Defenseman Cale Makar didn't take part in practice for the fourth straight day, but he did skate on his own prior to the team session. It was the first time that he had hit the ice since leaving midway through last Saturday's session.
"Having Cale back on the ice I think is a good, positive sign," Bednar said. "He's back out there, working out on his own, and hopefully he's able to join the group here quickly and be ready to go for when we get into Edmonton."

FAREWELL AVALANCHE

The Avs were given a parting gift from fans during Thursday sessions, which was likely the penultimate practice in Colorado before the team leaves on Sunday for its hub city.
At the intermission of the club's two-half scrimmage, the players watched a video on Pepsi Vision from Avalanche fans, Kroenke Sports staff and players from the NBA Denver Nuggets and MLS Colorado Rapids wishing the club the best of luck in its goal of winning a Stanley Cup.
The Avs truly appreciated the support, with players smiling and doing stick taps afterward.

WHAT'S NEXT

Friday is a scheduled off day for the club before likely returning to the practice ice on Saturday. The team departs for Edmonton on Sunday and will play its exhibition contest against the Minnesota Wild on Wednesday.
The Avs will likely have several more days of practice next week in the Alberta provincial capital before opening the Stanley Cup Qualifiers round robin versus the St. Louis Blues on Aug. 2.

SCRIMMAGE NO. 4 TEAMS

Based on the start of the game
Team Burgundy
Andre Burakovsky - J.T. Compher - Mikko Rantanen
Gabriel Landeskog - Shane Bowers - Matt Calvert
Matt Nieto - Pierre-Edouard Bellemare - Logan O'Connor
Samuel Girard - Ian Cole
Nikita Zadorov - Kevin Connauton
Bowen Byram
Philipp Grubauer
Team White
Valeri Nichushkin - Nazem Kadri - Joonas Donskoi
Vladislav Namestnikov - Tyson Jost - T.J. Tynan
Sheldon Dries - Vladislav Kamenev - Jacob MacDonald (D)
Ryan Graves - Erik Johnson
Mark Barberio - Conor Timmins
Anton Lindholm
Pavel Francouz