Avs Prep for First Exhibition Game with Special-Teams Practice

CENTENNIAL, Colo.--The Colorado Avalanche will get its first chance to play against another team on Tuesday, but first the squad ran through special-teams drills at practice on Monday.
Monday's session marked the first time at training camp that the Avalanche mixed up its forward lines and defensive pairings with the purpose of putting together four different power-play units, two in each group of skaters.
The first group that took the ice had a top man-advantage grouping of Nathan MacKinnon, Gabriel Landeskog, J.T. Compher, Mikko Rantanen and Cale Makar, which could be the top unit when Colorado opens the season on Oct. 13.
However, the combination will likely not be together on Tuesday when the Avs play their first preseason game of the year against the Vegas Golden Knights at T-Mobile Arena. The squad for the exhibition outing will mix veterans and prospects with a roster of mostly younger players.

"Our veteran guys will play two or three and there's some guys that we need to look at hard," said head coach Jared Bednar. "Some of our young guys, see what they can do in exhibition. Some of the guys that are depth call up guys. We'll let those guys battle it out and see, give them lots of opportunity and mix in our veterans as we get along. Some guys we want to get some games in right away. Usually, early exhibition there is a young lineup that you're going to face for a few games, so we'll have a young lineup going tomorrow."
In the second group of skaters at practice on Monday, the first power-play unit comprised of Valeri Nichushkin, Nazem Kadri, Andre Burakovsky, Mikhail Maltsev and Samuel Girard while the second grouping featured many young skaters including Alex Newhook, Martin Kaut and Bowen Byram.
"He'll get a real good look in exhibition, if he handles it well and he's producing in there then he'll get a look," Bednar said of Byram. "Again, there's only 10 power-play jobs, Byram is fighting for one of them. Newhook will be fighting for one of them. Maltsev will be fighting for one. We'll see who produces where they're at and how their power plays look. If he looks poised and he's making all the right plays and it's going well or he's growing through the exhibition, then he's got a real good chance of starting our power-play unit. But you know you could probably pick out eight guys that are going to play it. There's a couple spots up for grabs."

AVS REASSIGN FIVE

Colorado reassigned five skaters on Monday afternoon. Included in the transactions were forwards Matej Kaslik, Jack O'Brien and Benjamin Tardif and defensemen Miles Gendron and Robert Hamilton.
Gendron, Hamilton and Tardif are all on American Hockey League contracts and were reassigned to the Colorado Eagles.

GROUP 1

92 Gabriel Landeskog - 29 Nathan MacKinnon - 96 Mikko Rantanen
75 Sampo Ranta - 37 J.T. Compher - 27 Oskar Olausson
43 Darren Helm - 12 Jayson Megna - 25 Logan O'Connor
9 Dylan Sikura - 15 Shane Bowers - 54 Matej Kaslik
64 Benjamin Tardif - 93 Jean-Luc Foudy - 74 Alex Beaucage
28 Ryan Murray - 8 Cale Makar
26 Jacob MacDonald - 72 Justin Barron
56 Kurtis MacDermid - 88 Andreas Englund
48 Dennis Gilbert - 46 Miles Gendron
35 Darcy Kuemper
60 Justus Annunen
50 Trent Miner
Power Play 1: MacKinnon - Landeskog - Compher - Rantanen - Makar
Power Play 2:Ranta - Olausson - Sikura - MacDonald - Barron

GROUP 2

13 Valeri Nichushkin - 91 Nazem Kadri - 95 Andre Burakovsky
17 Tyson Jost - 18 Alex Newhook - 61 Martin Kaut
40 Artem Anisimov - 11 Mikhail Maltsev - 44 Kiefer Sherwood
22 Stefan Matteau - 41 Gabriel Fontaine - 63 Andreas Wingerli
73 Dalton Smith - 68 Callahan Burke - 70 Nick Henry - 53 Jack O'Brien
49 Samuel Girard - 6 Erik Johnson
4 Bowen Byram - 3 Jack Johnson
67 Keaton Middleton - 79 Jordan Gross
65 Robert Hamilton - 84 Nate Clurman
39 Pavel Francouz
31 Jonas Johansson
32 Hunter Miska
Power Play 1: Nichushkin - Kadri - Burakovsky - Maltsev - Girard
Power Play 2: Jost - Newhook - Kaut - Anisimov - Byram

ONE TIMERS

Forward Mikko Rantanen on the Avalanche's core: "The core guys usually lead the way on the ice and off the ice for the younger guys especially. I think we have a good core here. We hold some meetings during the season always with each other, especially when we are going through a tough time or something like what we have to do, but ya it's a big part. I'm talking about the end of the year always because that's where we need to get better in the playoffs. Also, as a core guys, especially we as a line we cn to take another step on the playoff hockey too to get to that next level. It's a big thing for us and we take high responsibility of that."

Defenseman Justin Barron on his first Avalanche camp: "I mean my goal was just to come in and have a good camp and give myself the best opportunity I can to make the Avalanche. Just kind of showcase my game to the coaching staff and management. It's my first camp so they haven't really seen a lot of me, the NHL coaches haven't especially. So, I just focused on coming in and playing my game. Wherever I end up is where I will end up. I will keep working to make I to the NHL or stay in the NHL."

Forward Nazem Kadri on playing on a line with Valeri Nichushkin and Andre Burakovsky:"I like it. Val's a hard worker, he's a big body, he can skate, he's got some skill, so I think for us to kind of bring that all together we are going to be a tough line to play against. We are going to stay responsible and play on both sides of the puck, so I think that's the best part about the line. I think we can play with anybody and that is going to be an advantage to have."

Head coach Jared Bednar on what the team has covered through four days of camp: "We go through video with our guys, we practice what we went through. We move onto the next day and we go through video. Now you can start seeing a lot of five-on-five drills in practice because it's review, we've gone through all that stuff. As far as have I gone through everything before our first exhibition game? No. We haven't touched on three-on-three, four-on-four, five versus six, six versus five. But we've got lots of camp to keep feeding those guys that information. Today was special teams and we'll give them a little tomorrow before the game and we'll do a little pre-scout like we would do in regular season, probably just a shortened version of it and we will just keep working. The rest of camp will be reviewing, practicing, trying to get all those details tight and we'll get through all of the other stuff too as we move along."