Avs Focusing On Themselves Ahead of Game 1 on Sunday

Game 1 of Round 2 for the Colorado Avalanche is on Sunday. The team knows that and though it has yet to find out who it will be hosting at Ball Arena, it is concentrating on what it can control in the meantime.
The Avs last played on Sunday when they earned a 5-2 win in Game 4 against the St. Louis Blues, sweeping their first-round set. They will have a full week between contests and having that much time away from the game while its next opponent will have played three games in that stretch can be viewed as both a positive and negative, but the Avalanche is just focusing on the hand it has been dealt.
Colorado is using the time to try and recharge while staying sharp mentally and physically and not worrying about who its next opponent will be.

"I don't think there's a right or wrong way to look at it, I think we can only control what we can control," said defenseman Devon Toews. "We got through St. Louis in four and got some days off, and we can't really control when the next series is going to start or what's going to happen and who we're going to play. Right now, we're just trying to control our rest, recovery and get ready for the next series."
In the second round, Colorado will face the winner of the Minnesota Wild-Vegas Golden Knights series. Vegas previously had a 3-1 lead in the best-of-seven set, but Minnesota won Games 5 and 6 to force a decisive seventh outing of the matchup that is scheduled for 7 p.m. MT on Friday.
After a condensed 56-game schedule that had the Avalanche playing almost every other night and 10 back-to-back sets mixed in, the extra time might be more valuable this year than in season's past.
"I'm sure guys that played all 56 games, every other night, it's just different to get used to," said Nathan MacKinnon. "The rest, I'm sure they're really appreciating their bodies healing and resting. Whoever we play Sunday, we are going to be ready to go. We're working really hard in practice. We've had two really good days, so we're excited to get going."
After having a full-team practice on Wednesday and optional skates on Tuesday and Thursday, the Avs got the entire group together again on Friday. They did some of their typical practice drills for about 20 minutes before focusing on 5-on-5 work for 15 minutes. Colorado then worked on special teams for the final quarter hour of the 50-minute session.
The first power-play unit consisted of forwards Joonas Donoskoi, Gabriel Landeskog, Nathan MacKinnon and Mikko Rantanen and defenseman Cale Makar, while the second group had rear guards Samuel Girard and Devon Toews with forwards Andre Burakovsky, J.T. Compher and Brandon Saad, with Valeri Nichushkin taking reps as well.
"You can only control what we can control, and we can't control the outcome of a different game right now, so that's not our focus," said Toews. "Once we know who our opponent is then we'll be focused on them."

PRACTICE LINE COMBINATIONS

Forwards
92 Gabriel Landeskog - 29 Nathan MacKinnon - 96 Mikko Rantanen
95 Andre Burakovsky - 37 J.T. Compher - 72 Joonas Donskoi
20 Brandon Saad - 17 Tyson Jost - 13 Valeri Nichushkin
34 Carl Soderberg - 41 Pierre-Edouard Bellemare - 75 Sampo Ranta
18 Alex Newhook - 91 Nazem Kadri - 44 Kiefer Sherwood
Defensemen
7 Devon Toews - 8 Cale Makar
49 Samuel Girard - 27 Ryan Graves
24 Patrik Nemeth - 22 Conor Timmins
4 Bowen Byram - 26 Jacob MacDonald
Goaltenders
31 Philipp Grubauer
40 Devan Dubnyk
35 Jonas Johansson

QUOTABLES

Nathan MacKinnon on Erik Johnson being around the rink more recently: "It's good to see your friend. I played with EJ for eight years ,and it's obviously nice to see he's doing better, spirits look better. I don't think he's coming back this season, but just as a human being, hopefully he gets healthy. It's good to see him around, I know he's working hard off the ice trying to get healthy."
Devon Toews on playing big minutes in games:"I don't think you really think about it, you just go out there and play. As players, our job isn't to dictate when we are on the ice or off the ice, it's the coach's job and we leave that to them. All we can do is kind of play our best and consistent game and try to earn that respect and that loyalty in order to get more ice. I think I've done a pretty good job of that this year, and we got eight, 10 guys that can play any given night. So it's a privilege and honor to be out there with the other five, and we just try to do our best every night."
Conor Timmins on his play in Round 1: "I think I just kept it simple. For the most part I was pretty good moving pucks, did a good job defending and spent some time in the O-zone, so I think I can just build on that and continue to grow in my play."