Morning Skate Report: Avs-Wild a Sneak Peek of Opening Night

It won't exactly be a preview of opening night, but tonight's preseason game between the Colorado Avalanche and Minnesota Wild will be a dress rehearsal of sorts before the teams meet again for the start of the new campaign in less than a week.
The Avs will ice a lineup of mainly veterans this evening at Pepsi Center against the Wild, the division rival they will host in the season opener on Thursday. Most of the 20 Avalanche players that will suit up tonight were on last year's squad and are expected to be in the lineup for the first game.

"I think it's good for the team to just be one group right now, skating together, getting to know each other a lot better," said Mikko Rantanen, who will be entering his third full campaign with the Avs. "Obviously we don't have a lot of new faces, but it's nice to have one group. A lot of guys haven't played since Game 1 (of the preseason), so it's going to be fun to go out there again, get two more games before the real season starts."
Tonight is the fifth of six exhibition contests for Colorado and the last one at Pepsi Center. The team plays its preseason finale on Sunday at the Dallas Stars, and all NHL clubs will need to submit their first 23-man active roster soon after.

The intensity versus the Wild and Stars won't be anything quite like what the players will experience during the regular season, but they are good measuring-stick games of where the Avs are in the process, both as a team and as individuals. The idea is to keep creating good habits so there is not a lull at the beginning of the new year.
"Just getting back to the way we know how to play," said second-year forward Tyson Jost. "Get back to our systems and just playing the right way and play that Avalanche hockey that we were known for last year, with the speed and grit and determination. Touch up a few things the last two games and get polished up for opening night."

Along with Jost and Rantanen, other Colorado "veterans" playing in the tune-up contest versus the Wild include Nathan MacKinnon, Gabriel Landeskog, Tyson Barrie, Erik Johnson, Ian Cole, Samuel Girard and Nikita Zadorov.
The Avs held an optional morning skate, so the exact line combinations are not quite known but expect last year's top line of Landeskog, MacKinnon and Rantanen to stay intact for the exhibition versus Minnesota.

GRUBAUER STARTS

Goaltender Philipp Grubauer will make his second start of the preseason this evening, and he and the club are looking for a better result than the last time they played the Wild.
Grubauer's first contest of the exhibitions was last Saturday at Minnesota in a game that Colorado lost 7-0. He made 26 saves and played the entire game, one that saw the Wild dress most of its veterans while the Avs suited up many of their prospects and young players.
Semyon Varlamov will start in the final preseason contest for the Avalanche on Sunday at the Dallas Stars.

ROSTER COMPETITION

Colorado doesn't have many spots open for its opening night roster, but there does appear to be a few up for grabs entering the last weekend of the preseason.
Forwards Sheldon Dries and Dominic Toninato are two of the players playing tonight that are likely battling for an NHL spot with the club.
Dries is in his first season with the Avs organization after signing as a free agent on July 2. He played for the Texas Stars in the American Hockey League last year and helped the team win the Western Conference and reach the Calder Cup Final.
Toninato is the incumbent player of the two centers. He skated in 37 games with Colorado and 31 with the San Antonio Rampage of the AHL last season, his first in pro hockey. He signed with the Avs as a college free agent on Aug. 16, 2017.

Colorado Avalanche Game Roster

Preseason vs. Minnesota Wild - Sept. 28, 2018
| 1 | Semyon Varlamov | G | | 31 | Philipp Grubauer | G | | | | | | 4 | Tyson Barrie | D | | 6 | Erik Johnson | D | | 11 | Matt Calvert | LW | | 13 | Alex Kerfoot | C | | 15 | Sheldon Dries | C | | 16 | Nikita Zadorov | D | | 17 | Tyson Jost | C | | 22 | Colin Wilson | C/LW | | 28 | Ian Cole | D | | 29 | Nathan MacKinnon | C | | 37 | J.T. Compher | LW | | 44 | Mark Barberio | D | | 47 | Dominic Toninato | C | | 49 | Samuel Girard | D | | 57 | Gabriel Bourque | RW | | 83 | Matt Nieto | LW | | 92 | Gabriel Landeskog | LW | | 96 | Mikko Rantanen | RW | | No. | Name | Pos. | | --- | --- | --- |
Scratches: Mark Alt, Sven Andrighetto, Vladislav Kamenev, Anton Lindholm, Logan O'Connor, Patrik Nemeth, Carl Soderberg, Conor Timmins, David Warsofsky