Avs Practice Before Opening 2018-19 Season

CENTENNIAL, Colo.--The Colorado Avalanche practiced for one last time at Family Sports Center on Wednesday before the 2018-19 campaign officially begins.
The Avalanche opens the season versus the Minnesota Wild at Pepsi Center on Thursday and had a 45-minute session focused on special teams to formally wrap up the preseason.

"It's exciting, I mean it's been a long summer for us," defenseman Nikita Zadorov said of getting the new season underway. "We've been getting ready, it was a great camp I think for our team. You know, we got all the guys who are going to start here, we are getting together and we are excited to start it tomorrow."
The Avalanche opened training camp on Sept. 14 and went 3-3-0 in six preseason games, winning its last two contests.
"I thought we started slow in practices and games. I liked the way our guys came back into camp from a conditioning standpoint," said head coach Jared Bednar. "I didn't see the urgency I wanted to see early on, but it's a long camp. I feel like that's been building, I liked some of the last games that we have played and portions of the last games we have played. I think we are ramping it up at the right time.
"We had a good game [at the Dallas Stars on Sunday], yesterday a real good practice, another good practice today focusing a little bit on special teams again. The communication and the energy is going up and the intensity is building, so I think we are in a good spot going into opening night. Our guys are excited to play… We are ready to go for opening night."

VARLY IN NET

Goaltender Semyon Varlamov will start between the pipes for the Avalanche against the Minnesota Wild.
"Very excited, I am looking forward to playing tomorrow," said Varlamov. "It's the first game of the season, of course it's different. You haven't played in a while, you are very excited about the first game. I am sure the building will be full tomorrow, crowd will be very excited about the first game also."
It will be Varlamov's 400th NHL contest and his eighth-straight, opening-night start with the Avalanche, passing Patrick Roy for the most season-opening starts in franchise history.

ANOTHER ROSTER MOVE

After practice, the Avs announced that forward Dominic Toninato was reassigned to the Colorado Eagles of the American Hockey League. The Avalanche's active roster now sits at 21 players.
"We may even go below [23 players]. [The Eagles] are at home this weekend, we are playing on Thursday, if we have someone that's not in the lineup Thursday we may make another cut or send a guy up the road again to play," Bednar noted after practice but before the transaction was announced. "We don't need 23 guys here so three guys are sitting around, we have touched on that and we will continue to do that.
"If we need someone for the weekend or when we are on the road then we will recall somebody. We still have a couple guys, I am going to talk to the trainers after about the health and availability of some of our guys, and then make our final decisions and gear up for tomorrow."

HEALTH UPDATES

Defenseman Anton Lindholm was a full participant in the club's practice on Wednesday after he hurt his shoulder in a preseason game on Sept. 24 at the Vegas Golden Knights.
Conor Timmins (concussion) and Vladislav Kamenev (lower body) didn't take part in the team session on Wednesday, but they did skate on their own in red, non-contact jerseys on the other sheet of ice at Family Sports Center.
Both Timmins and Kamenev ran through some shooting drills with goaltending coach Jussi Parkkila to help Varlamov and Philipp Grubauer warmup before practice began.

QUOTABLES

Defenseman Nikita Zadorov on opening the season at Pepsi Center: "We have great fans, especially after the season we had last year. They got that taste of the playoffs, we got a taste of the playoffs and we want to come back there this year. We are going to do everything we can this year to make them happy."

Goaltender Semyon Varlamov on how exhibition games help the team prepare:"You have to play a couple games in the preseason because like I said, it's a long summer. It doesn't matter how hard you train, you have to get back on the ice and play a full game to get in game shape. I played a couple game I feel good, ready to go."

Head Coach Jared Bednar on the Avs' leadership group: "The communication there between our coaching staff and our leadership group, it just encourages those guys to give us their feelings on things and open up about what they are feeling on the ice."