Avalanche center
Matt Duchene, a huge country music fan and amateur guitarist, previously attended the Route 91 Harvest Festival in Las Vegas and is friendly with some of the artists who performed before Sunday night's mass shooting.
More on his comments at the end of some Avalanche news:
Coach
Jared Bednar said Monday that goalie
Jonathan Bernier will take part in full practice Tuesday. He sustained a groin injury in the second period against Dallas a week ago and skated for the second day in a row before joining team for partial practice.
Forward
Joe Colborne took part in all the drills after missing most of camp after hurting his back in the team charity golf tournament two weeks ago.
Forward
A.J. Greer, who is recovering from a concussion, practiced while wearing a non-contact jersey.
Defenseman
David Warsofsky cleared waivers, as did defenseman
Duncan Siemens, so they probably will be assigned to AHL San Antonio. The 23-man roster will be announced Tuesday.
These were the defense pairings Monday:
Anton Lindholm -- Erik Johnson
Mark Barberio -- Tyson Barrie
Nikita Zadorov -- Chris Bigras
Andrei Mironov, Siemens and Warsofsky also practiced.
"You look at our forward group and our defense group, we've got a lot of young guys," Bednar said. "That's by design. Guys got to prove themselves, prove they can play. We've liked what some of those guys have done in the minors or in Europe, and now we have to give them a chance to play some games and see how they do, and sort things out.
"There have been some tough decisions and we're still trying to make a few of them. It doesn't mean the opportunity ends there. Some of these guys will be in San Antonio. You have to prove that you can play every day."
The Avalanche are expected to use these line combinations Thursday:
Sven Andrighetto -- Nathan MacKinnon --Mikko Rantanen
Alex Kerfoot -- Matt Duchene -- Nail Yakupov
Gabriel Landeskog -- J.T. Compher -- Colin Wilson
Matt Nieto -- Tyson Jost -- Blake Comeau
Carl Soderberg would be scratched.
Gabriel Bourque went on waivers Monday.
"We liked what we saw from some of our line combinations in exhibition and we're going to give it a try here and see if we can continue a little bit of the chemistry we feel we saw in training camp and in the exhibition games."
*****
Here's Duchene on the Las Vegas tragedy:
“It was horrible. I have my whole political stance on that whole thing and I’m not going to fall in the trap of talking about it, but to strike that close -- I have a lot of friends in the industry and people that I know.
"The opener for
(Jason) Aldean was a guy (
Jake Owen) that I’ve gotten to know a little bit, and his crew a little bit. I messaged them this morning, just wishing them all the best. I've got some other really close friends that have come to visit me out here, come to visit me back home that are in the industry. I was with them two years ago at the same festival, and it could have easily been all of us."
Duchene attended during the time when the Avalanche and Kings played a preseason game at the MGM Grand Garden Arena.
"One of our friends was performing," he said. "We went out to his show. I can kind of picture where it all went down.
"It's got to be a wakeup call to the country. I'm obviously Canadian and I don't want to speak too much on another country's politics, but at the same time, it just can't happen."
Duchene messaged former teammate
Calvin Pickard, now with the Golden Knights, on Monday morning. Several Vegas players went to the festival over the weekend, but they didn't attend Sunday night,
"My wife and I are really shook up by it to know people that have been there," Duchene said. "It strikes a little too close to home. Just to think about the horrors of that must be ... I can't even imagine."
Duchene has been cordial since camp opened, but he won't discuss his situation with the Avalanche. He said he would talk in New York about the season opener Thursday before playing the Rangers.
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