Finally, the Avalanche play their season opener against Dallas on Saturday at the Pepsi Center, and coach
Jared Bednar makes his official NHL debut.
"It's something I've been working towards my whole coaching life," Bednar said after the morning skate. "It's exciting for me. I've had a chance to sit and talk with my family about it. We went out for dinner last night, but for me this is just the first step.
"To me, winning is what I want to do here. It's not just to be here and to see how it goes. I'm all in on this deal, and in order for me to be happy we're going to have to have some success."
Bednar's parents will be in attendance, along with his son,
Kruz, who is enrolled in high school in a Denver suburb. Bednar's wife,
Susan, and daughter,
Savega, have remained at the family home in Charleston, S.C., because of school and are planning to be reunited in Colorado around Christmas.
"We're excited, I think our whole group is excited," Bednar said. "It's our first chance to make an impression on our fans and to try to establish our identity in our home building. We want to get started and see how we match up against one of the league's best."
The Avalanche won all six of their preseason games, but they haven't played since a 2-1 overtime win against Los Angeles last Saturday in Las Vegas.
The Stars won their opener Thursday, 4-2 against Anaheim.
"I feel the same way as our players," Bednar said. "We put in a lot of hard work through training camp and now it's an opportunity for us to go out and prove ourselves in front of our fans. We have to make this a difficult place to play, and that starts with the drop of the puck."
The Avalanche are hoping there is some carryover from the preseason, which would include playing well at home. They went 17-20-4 at the Pepsi Center last season.
"You want to get off to a good start, especially on home ice," captain
Gabriel Landeskog said. "We have to take care of business at home and get going and keep our emotions in check. Everybody's going to be real excited and all that, but just get out there and play.
"We want to make sure that we establish our identity on home ice, establish the way we want to play. You have to be a dominant team at home and we all know that. That's a big reason we missed out (on the playoffs) last year."
Here's the Avalanche lineup:
Gabriel Landeskog -- Nathan MacKinnon -- Jarome Iginla
Mikhail Grigorenko -- Carl Soderberg -- Matt Duchene
Gabriel Bourque -- Joe Colborne -- Rene Bourque
Andreas Martinsen -- Ben Smith -- Blake Comeau
Nikita Zadorov -- Erik Johnson
Francois Beauchemin -- Tyson Barrie
Fedor Tyutin -- Patrick Wiercioch
Semyon Varlamov
Calvin Pickard
Scratched: Eric Gelinas, Cody McLeod
Injured: John Mitchell (hip)
Here's the Stars lineup:
Jamie Benn -- Tyler Seguin -- Patrick Eaves
Patrick Sharp -- Jason Spezza -- Jiri Hudler
Antoine Roussel -- Radek Faksa -- Adam Cracknell
Lauri Korpikoski -- Devin Shore -- Brett Ritchie
Patrik Nemeth -- John Klingberg
Johnny Oduya -- Stephen Johns
Dan Hamhuis -- Jordie Benn
Antti Niemi
Kari Lehtonen
Scratched: Esa Lindell, Curtis McKenzie
Injured: Cody Eakin (knee), Ales Hemsky (groin), Mattias Janmark (knee), Jamie Oleksiak (lower body)
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