Avalanche Host Optional Practice After Home Opener Win

CENTENNIAL, Colo.--The Colorado Avalanche took the ice for an optional practice on Thursday at Family Sports Center following its season opening 4-2 win against the Chicago Blackhawks on Wednesday.
Forwards Alex Newhook, Logan O'Connor and Sampo Ranta along with defensemen Bowen Byram, Cale Makar, Devon Toews and Kurtis MacDermid were amongst those on the squad to lace up Thursday morning. Toews was in a red, non-contact jersey for the session.

Colorado found the back of the net three times within the first 10 minutes of Wednesday's game including rookie defenseman Bowen Byram scoring his first NHL career goal assisted by Gabriel Landeskog.

In the matchup against the Blackhawks, the squad went 0-for-4 on the power plays and 2-for-3 on the penalty kill.
"I think we had some chances last night" noted Mikko Rantanen. "We should have been better on those power plays we had, I think that's the one thing we can work on maybe tomorrow and have a better night on Saturday."
Going into a new season the Avs had a strong start in the first period of Wednesday's outing against the Blackhawks and had an 18-8 edge in shots for the frame. Throughout the remainder of the game, Chicago pushed back and Colorado ultimately ended the contest with a 36-34 advantage in the category.

"I think that's our identity, especially at home we had a good jump every game last year pretty much in the first period and yesterday was the same thing, 3-0 right away" said Rantanen. "I think after that our game got a little bit sloppy and a little bit slower so I think that's one thing we can be better at. I think St. Louis is going to be a tougher opponent for us on Saturday night, so we have to be even better if we want to win the game."
Colorado will have another practice on Friday leading up to its matchup against St. Louis on Saturday.

"We obviously had a really good start off the hop there the first 10-15 (minutes) we really controlled the play, and then we let some habits slip away once we got the lead there which I think resulted in them getting back in the game, we didn't really have that finishing mentality on them" Logan O'Connor said. "I think we could have taken the wind out of their sails much earlier in the game, instead we let them hang around. It's early in the season so those things may happen here, but we got to control that earlier and try and fix those habits here early before the end of the season, those could really come back to bite you, so hopefully we get a grip on that soon."
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Logan O'Connor on Penalty Kill: "I think last night we were a little stagnant at times, we weren't using our feet as much. I mean give them credit they do have a good power-play unit, but we got to sharpen that up right away. I don't think we were too pleased with the penalty-killing effort last night. I mean granted guys are getting put together in new units and like I said start of the year so these things are going to happen, but we got to try and get that out of the way here early so we can move past that and work to become one of the best PK units in the league because that obviously the goal, the collective goal of the PK group and the team--we definitely feel as though we have the personnel to do so. We got to learn from that, watch video, get ready for St. Louis next game and do some pre-scouting on them to go out there and hopefully have a better showing on the PK side of things."