New Avalanche coach
Jared Bednar has viewed hours upon hours of videotape, has had numerous meetings with his assistant coaches, managed to have relatively brief conversations with his players, and is ready to begin on-ice sessions Friday while leading his first NHL training camp.
"I am, and I think the guys are too," he said Thursday during a news conference at the Pepsi Center after the veterans reported for medical and physical tests. "They've been training hard all summer long. Now to get the opportunity to get on the ice as a group, start working toward what we're trying to accomplish, it's exciting for everyone."
On-ice sessions at the Family Sports Center in Centennial, Colo., are free and open to the public on a first-come, first-served basis. Players will be divided into two groups with sessions running from 8:45 a.m. - 10:15 a.m., and 10:45 a.m. - 12:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday.
The Burgundy and White game is Sunday at 3 p.m. at Magness Arena on the University of Denver campus. The Avalanche open a six-game preseason schedule Tuesday at Minnesota, and they play Dallas at the Pepsi Center on Wednesday.
Here's the
CAMP ROSTER.
Here's the
NUMERICAL ROSTER.
"We have a lot of things that we need to see and the competition, our guys, where they settle out in our lineup, who makes the team," Bednar said. "There's a lot of decisions that need to be made. We're going to take the whole preseason, camp, exhibition games, to do that. Watch and evaluate, experiment, do all those things to make sure we're the best team we can become opening night."
Bednar was hired Aug. 25, two weeks after
Patrick Roy surprised general manager
Joe Sakic by resigning as coach and vice president of hockey operations, saying in a press release he didn't have enough input in player personnel decisions.
So Bednar, a career minor leaguer as a player and coach, spent the past several weeks learning as much as possible from his assistants and through video about the players he'll be coaching.
"I really like the work that we've done as a coaching staff," said Bednar, who guided the Lake Erie (now Cleveland) Monsters to the AHL championship last season. "The guys came back early from their summers and we've locked ourselves down in the office a little bit here, gone through a lot of things. We're really comfortable with where we're at and excited to get on the ice. We're ready to go."
How much time did Bednar spend looking at tape of last season's games?
"It's a lot," he said. "We shoved the video aside once we had enough. Gone back a couple of times, looked at different scenarios. More power play, special teams, special situations. It's a lot. I've seen what I needed to see from last season, I'll put it that way.
"I'm turning the page. We're starting to get ready for camp and grabbing the video we needed to go get into training camp here. We've discussed more on how we're going to teach moving forward than what we did last season."
A few highlights from Bednar's news conference:
*
Gabriel Landeskog will remain captain, but no decisions have been made about the assistants.
Jarome Iginla and
Cody McLeod wore an 'A' last season.
"With Gabe, he's the captain of our team," Bednar said. "The assistant captains and what we do with the rest of the group will be evaluated and we'll make decisions on that later on. Whether it's two guys, four games, all the things we want to consider as an organization, as a coaching staff, how we support Gabe, how they interact with us and how they interact with their new teammates. We're going to take the camp to evaluate it."
* Players will have to earn playing time. There are no guarantees.
"I think for all of our players, you get what you earn when it comes to certain responsibilities, whether it's a checking responsibility, whether it's an offensive responsibility," Bednar said. "The situations that come through the game, the guys that earn our trust as a coaching staff and as an organization usually get put in those places because you're trying to win hockey games."
* New assistant coach
Nolan Pratt, who worked with Bednar in Cleveland, will run the defense and penalty killing.
Tim Army will work with the forwards and power play. Presumably,
Dave Farrish will work with Pratt. Goalie coach
Francois Allaire arrived a few days ago.
"Our assistants, myself, all of our coaches, we coach as a group," Bednar said. "We're involved in everything we do. Everyone has their certain roles on our coaching staff. We put our heads together a lot. That's the way I like to do things. They've helped me out tremendously, the group we have here.
"They're helping me daily. I'm new to the league, I'm new to this group. There are things I need to know. There are things I'll figure out along the way. They've been good about giving me the information and still letting me feel out where we're at. I'm appreciative of that."
* On the absence of Landeskog,
Matt Duchene, Erik Johnson, Nathan MacKinnon, Carl Soderberg and
Semyon Varlamov, who have been playing in the World Cup of Hockey.
"I think it’s all positive," Bednar said. "To me, having those guys playing in important games, meaningful games against the world’s best, I think is something you can’t replace. It’s experience that’s invaluable to their growth as young players. It also gives me an opportunity, and our staff an opportunity, to evaluate a lot of the other players that are coming in here and trying to make our team.”
"Obviously, we have centermen gone to the World Cup. There are players who've played center and wing who are coming in here. Guys like
Joe Colborne, he's going to get an opportunity up the middle. We need to see those guys playing in different positions and taking on a leadership role with the team. We need to see guys like him playing with different linemen and who can mesh and find some chemistry."
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