Avs Prepare for Second Game versus Blues

The first game of the 2020-21 season didn't go the way the Colorado Avalanche wanted it to go, but the team has a quick turnaround and can make amends for it in its next opportunity.
The Avs fell 4-1 to the St. Louis Blues on Wednesday in their season opener at Ball Arena and will host the same Blues again on Friday night. The loss was the first time that Colorado has dropped its opening night matchup since 2015-16.
"I have a lot of faith in our hockey team and our players in our room, and I am really unhappy with last night's game and I know they are as well," head coach Jared Bednar said after practice on Thursday. "We got a lot of pride in this team and there's just certain levels that we didn't meet last night. Starts with our determination and our competitiveness. We weren't at a level where we needed to be, and we've addressed that. I like the focus and the work today in practice, and I expect us to be better tomorrow. Again, playing a real good St. Louis Blues team--it doesn't guarantee a victory--but we certainly have to be better than we were last night if we want to win the hockey game and I expect us to be better tomorrow."

One of the aspects that the NHL and NHLPA agreed upon when finalizing the 56-game schedule for the campaign was that there wouldn't be any preseason contests played. That means that Wednesday's matchup marked the first time that Colorado competed against another team in four months, last playing against the Dallas Stars in Game 7 of the second-round series in the 2020 Stanley Cup Playoffs on Sept. 4.
"We knew we were sloppy. We know there was going to be mistakes, but I think we've got to bring a lot better effort in Game 2," veteran Matt Calvert. "When you bring effort, you make hard mistakes, you can make up for those, that's something we didn't do last night. We gave up two goals that were 2-on-0's, and that's very uncharacteristic of our team. We talked about it today, we addressed it, we got back to work, and we'll be ready. Looking forward to a split against St. Louis tomorrow night."
It is the first time Colorado is playing the same opponent in two straight regular-season home games (both at home) since Oct. 27-29, 2005 versus the Vancouver Canucks.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic and limiting travel, the campaign will consist entirely of divisional games and a baseball-like schedule with the teams facing off in two to four-game sets. The Avs will face the Blues and the other West Division foes (Anaheim, Arizona, Los Angeles, Minnesota, San Jose and Vegas) eight times apiece throughout the year.

"I think that's what nice about this kind of season, is games come so fast so once that game is over, we are on to the next one with your recovery, your nutrition and getting yourself prepared," said defenseman Devon Toews. "You don't have time to really dwell on it. We will do the video on it, check some things, work on some things in practice, but then it's on to the next game right now. We got to trust our process and yesterday wasn't part of our process and how we played in our details and our competitiveness wasn't there."

LINEUP NOTES

Head coach Jared Bednar mixed up his forward combinations during the full-team practice on Thursday at Family Sports Center. He moved Gabriel Landeskog onto the first line with Nathan MacKinnon and Mikko Rantanen and placed Andre Burakovsky on a trio with center Nazem Kadri and fellow wing Brandon Saad.
"We moved Landeskog with MacKinnon and Rantanen and then moved Saad over to the left with Kadri and Burky over to the right. Did that for a couple of different reasons. One being I like the net presence that Landy brings to the MacKinnon line," said Bednar. "When they have possession in the offensive zone, he sets up shop in front of the net, we know that he's had a lot of success with that, they were lacking that a little bit last night. The second one is Burakovsky, I am equally as happy with him on the right side as left, and I want to move Saad over to his left side and play on his forehand a little bit and see how he does there after last night's game."
Bednar did not say which goaltender is expected to be in net for Friday's game. Philipp Grubauer was in the crease on Wednesday and stopped 28 shots.
Thursday's Practice Lines
92 Gabriel Landeskog - 29 Nathan MacKinnon - 96 Mikko Rantanen
20 Brandon Saad - 91 Nazem Kadri - 95 Andre Burakovsky
13 Valeri Nichushkin - 37 J.T. Compher - 72 Joonas Donskoi
17 Tyson Jost - 41 Pierre-Edouard Bellemare - 11 Matt Calvert
61 Martin Kaut - 44 Kiefer Sherwood
7 Devon Toews - 8 Cale Makar
49 Samuel Girard - 22 Conor Timmins
27 Ryan Graves - 28 Ian Cole
9 Dennis Gilbert
31 Philipp Grubauer
39 Pavel Francouz
32 Hunter Miska

ONE TIMERS

Devon Toews on his first game as a member of the Avalanche:
"I think just as a team in general, it was a little bit of a learning process for us. There were ebbs and flows in the game that we just weren't aggressive enough and didn't play our style. I was happy my lungs felt good, my legs felt good, the structure and the details going to come for myself and the team in general. We just got to be better is what it comes down to, as a whole we just got to be better."
Tyson Jost on his offseason preparation:
"I was very motivated this summer. I wanted to make an impact on this team, and I knew how strong our lineup was going to be. I had to push myself and make an impact coming in here and I definitely want to have a better year. I haven't really been too happy with my past years and I want to take another step for sure, it's something that really motivated me. I mean I feel like I am a person that every summer I give it my all and I try to become a better player and I do whatever that takes."

Head coach Jared Bednar on preparing to face the same opponent two or more times in a row:
"Coaching back-to-back games, it's not like we don't do that in any regular season so it's really not that much different. We've played opponents back-to-back before. It's going to be a little bit different when you look at our schedule, we play some opponents four times in a row and that is almost like a whole playoff series, so it's approached a lot like a playoff series."