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Any inside info might help |
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Rick Sadowski
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There are very few, if any, secrets among NHL teams with all the high-tech scouting that goes on, but Avalanche coaches and players have been talking to former Nashville Predators Colin Wilson, Gabriel Bourque and Samuel Girard for any inside information they might have.
The Avalanche will open the best-of-seven first-round series Thursday in Nashville against the Presidents’ Trophy-winning Predators.
“We already did that this morning,” coach Jared Bednar said after practice Monday. “We had a quick meeting just going through their personnel. We’re going to try and prepare the same way as we have all year, as close to that as we can.
"We have a couple extra days, so we can dig in a little bit more on some of the new things, tactical things, things that we look at where we had success, where other teams have had success against Nashville and vice-versa, where their strengths are and how we can try and keep them at bay in certain areas.
“In going through their personnel today, Wils, Girard and Bourque all had some good things to say about some of their personnel and their strengths and weaknesses, some of the things they do habitually. And also on their systematic stuff, some things that we may not know that they talk about as a group that we don’t pick up on video.
“So we already got a lot of input from those guys and will continue to through the course of the series.”
The Avalanche will need all the help they can get, having lost 10 consecutive games to the Predators since a 4-3 win in Nashville on March 28, 2016.
“I don’t mind being the underdog,” Bednar said. “I want us to put our best foot forward, and I believe that will be good enough. And if it’s not, it’s not. But I think that if we do that, then we give ourselves our best chance. I want our guys to have fun, embrace it and enjoy it. But I want us to dig in and be highly competitive.”
Wilson was Nashville’s first-round pick (No. 7) in the 2008 NHL draft and spent his first eight seasons with the Predators, including 47 playoff games. He played in 14 playoff games last year, two games against Pittsburgh in the Stanley Cup Final. The Avalanche acquired him July 1 for a 2019 fourth-round pick.
“It’s excitement,” said Wilson, who had six goals and 12 assists in 56 games this season, missing 26 with various injuries. “It’s like a story being written. You got traded away from your team and you get to go play them right away. I’m just really excited, excited to be back in the playoffs. It’s going to be fun being on the other side of the rink.”
The Predators were an eighth seed last spring when they swept Chicago in the first round and took the Penguins to six games in the Cup Final.
“We’re in the same situation,” Wilson said. “They were a young team last year and we are a young team now. There is so much energy and so much excitement for guys in their first playoffs. You just use that, and it can be just as good as experience.”
*****
There was quite a buzz during Avalanche practice, and not just because so many Denver media members who showed up hadn’t stepped inside the suburban facility even once during the regular season.
The chatter involved the absence of Nathan MacKinnon. Was he ill, injured?
Turned out to be much ado about nothing. Bednar said he merely wanted to give his star center an extra day off following Saturday’s playoff clinching win against St. Louis.
“Just giving him a day of rest,” he said. “He’s eaten lots of minutes and he’s going to continue to do so, so we just kept him off the ice today.”
MacKinnon was the NHL’s fifth-leading scorer with 97 points (39 goals, 58 assists) in 74 games, becoming the Avalanche’s highest scorer since Joe Sakic had 100 points in 2006-07.
Bednar is a little biased, of course, but MacKinnon would be his leading candidate for the Hart Trophy as league’s MVP.
“I know what he’s done for us, and that’s hard to do,” he said. “He’s been very consistent all year long.”
Forwards Blake Comeau and J.T. Compher also were given the day off and are expected to practice Tuesday.
Bednar said that defenseman Erik Johnson and goalie Semyon Varlamov, both out with knee injuries, are the only injured players. Neither will play in the series.
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