Avalanche finding ‘emotional balance’ ahead of Western Final

CENTENNIAL, Colo. -- The Colorado Avalanche practiced Sunday, and it looked like they didn’t have a care in the world.

There were laughter and hijinks galore during the spirited practice at the Family Sports Center.

The Western Conference Final against the Vegas Golden Knights doesn’t start until Game 1 at Ball Arena on Wednesday (8 p.m. ET; ESPN, SN, TVAS, CBC). The second-round defeat of the Minnesota Wild is three days in the rearview mirror.

Part of the joviality on this day is the Avalanche are getting healthy.

Defenseman Sam Malinski returned to practice as a full participant after missing the past two games. Defenseman Josh Manson also took part. Cale Makar, Brent Burns and Artturi Lehkonen each missed practice for the second straight day, but coach Jared Bednar said each of the players is trending toward being available For Game 1.

But part of it was also by design.

Bednar worked the levity into the session, reminding the team what it has accomplished and the rewards that come with it. When the conference final schedule starts Wednesday, the Avalanche will be one of four teams left in the chase for the Stanley Cup.

“It should be fun this time of year,” Bednar said. “It’s really the reason we play. Nobody is playing for the 82-game grind, right. They are playing for the playoffs.”

The Avalanche earned their second extended break of the postseason after sweeping the Los Angeles Kings in the first round and dispatching the Minnesota Wild in five games in the second.

Colorado took two days off after Game 5 against the Wild and then practiced Saturday and Sunday. They will be off Monday and then have a final tune-up skate Tuesday before the chase begins again.

“It would be kind of hard to get a practice in November, December, especially January, with that type of juice and excitement,” Bednar said.

This time of year, the players see such a lighthearted skate as a reward, a break from the unrelenting pressure the postseason generates.

“Those days that you aren’t playing are really important days to try to detach as much as possible and then when the time comes, dial your focus back in,” veteran forward Nazem Kadri said.

The stress is evident everywhere among the Avalanche even though they won the Presidents’ Trophy and are 8-1 in the postseason.

Parker Kelly is in his sixth NHL season but had never advanced past the first round until this season.

On Saturday, the 27-year-old forward marveled at the difference playing an extra round makes and expressed some trepidation at what is yet to come if the Avalanche make it to the Cup Final.

“It’s crazy to think, it feels like it has been forever and we are only halfway there,” he said. “It’s crazy to think about that and the other thing is we have only had one loss, but everything is so close. It’s mentally challenging you; it’s hard to stick with it. It’s nice to have some days off and recharge the mind and the body and get back to work.”

Kadri has played in 61 career games in the Stanley Cup Playoffs. He helped the Avalanche win the Cup in 2022. Yet even he has trouble quantifying what happens to players in the postseason.

“When you are one of the final teams, I think you seclude yourself in this hockey bubble that is a very high dose of consumption and that is all you worry about, you try to block out the outside distractions and the outside noise,” he said. “What I always tell younger players is it is an emotional balance. I think you have to control your emotions.

“During a playoff game you can get too revved up and waste your energy in terms of getting too anxious and too nervous. Calm the emotions and it’ll be fine.”

That is what the past two days have been about for the Avalanche. It has been a reward for what has been accomplished and a refresher for what lies ahead against the playoff-tested Golden Knights.

“It’s the added excitement,” forward Brock Nelson said. “The stakes are so high, the emotion swings, the adrenaline swings, I feel like they are as high as it gets. This is the pinnacle of what you play for all year. You are riding that, but obviously you can’t get too caught up in that and you have to have short-term memory at the same time and go out there each and every day with a fresh mindset.”

The Avalanche have appeared to make it look easy at times this postseason.

But Bednar says looks can be deceiving, pointing to the 2022 championship team that went 16-4 to win the Cup, which included a sweep of the Nashville Predators in the first round and one of the Edmonton Oilers in the conference final.

“It felt like when (the playoffs were) done that every game was must-win and we lost four games the whole playoffs,” Bednar said. “People outside the competition would be like you went 16-4; it wasn’t obviously that hard. When you are going through it, it certainly feels hard. That’s the stress of the playoffs, the expectations.”

Expectations remain high for this Avalanche team that is not shy about the Cup-or-bust nature of their season.

There will be many more hurdles to clear, more challenges to navigate, more doubts to be put to rest.

Some will be under the control of Bednar and his players. Others won’t.

That is what makes winning the Cup so compelling.

“It’s partly why I think it is the hardest trophy to win is just because of the grind of it all,” he said. “Not only do you have to be good; you have to be healthy, you have to be lucky, you have to be tough, playing through injuries.

“You have to be mentally tough, too, because it is a grind every day; every game is a Game 7.  Every game feels like it is Game 7 because you need to win it.”