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They won't go 6-0 this time

September 20, 2017, 3:43 PM ET [18 Comments]
Rick Sadowski
Colorado Avalanche Blogger •Avalanche Insider • RSSArchiveCONTACT
Let's try not to get too hung up over the Avalanche's opening preseason game Tuesday, a 4-1 loss to the Vegas Golden Knights.

Yes, the Knights are an expansion team, but they played most of the guys who are expected to begin regular-season play after using mostly prospects Sunday in a 9-4 win in Vancouver.

The exceptions: Marc-Andre Fleury and former Avalanche goalie Calvin Pickard didn't make the trip, and they are entrenched in the Knights' net.

Anyway, Colorado won all six of its exhibition games last season, and that didn't turn out to mean anything.

Coach Jared Bednar wanted to look at the kids and chose to dress just five players who played regularly in the NHL last season: defenseman Erik Johnson and forwards Nathan MacKinnon, Matt Nieto, Mikko Rantanen and Carl Soderberg.

This was the lineup:

FORWARDS
Alex Kerfoot -- Nathan MacKinnon -- Mikko Rantanen
Andrew Agozzino -- J.C. Beaudin -- Rocco Grimaldi
Travis Barron -- Carl Soderberg -- Matt Nieto
Ty Lewis -- Dominic Toninato -- Gabriel Bourque

DEFENSE
Duncan Siemens -- Erik Johnson
Mason Geertsen -- Conor Timmins
Jared Cowen -- Nicolas Meloche

GOALIES
Spencer Martin
Joe Cannata

Was it an impressive performance? Hardly. The Knights took a 3-0 lead in the opening 7:47 -- the goals came 2:31 apart, two of them on 5-on-3 power plays -- and the Avalanche didn't show much life until the third period when they outshot Vegas 18-4 and were still outscored 1-0.

(The Knights are starting to come together as a team. Here's my Vegas story for NHL.com.)

Among the youngsters, Kerfoot and Timmins showed promise. Kerfoot played 18:01, had an assist and two shots on goal. Timmins had a shot and blocked three shots in 21:10, second on the team to Johnson's 23:02.

There wasn't much flow to the game, thanks to the way the league has mandated that officials crack down on slashing and faceoff violations. The teams combined for 16 penalties -- six for slashing and two for faceoff delays -- that resulted in 14 power plays, five of them two-man advantages.

Players eventually will catch on -- that's the hope, anyway -- which should lead to more unobstructed skating and more action.

"You come out of the gate and you get the 5-on-3's right away," Bednar said. "All we did was brush that up with a couple video clips and on the board before the game, so that is still coming into our plan this week for practice and in-between game days. I thought at times we were OK and other times we made some mistakes."

MacKinnon scored on a 5-on-3 at 17:03 of the second period when he batted in the rebound of Johnson's shot, cutting the Avalanche deficit to 3-1.

Martin faced 28 shots.

"I thought we did get a little jump in our step," Bednar said of the third period. "I thought we were tentative and standing around a lot in the early part of the game and just unsure. It has to do with some of those guys playing their first games."

The Avalanche had 10 shots while going 1-for-8 on power plays. Vegas had seven shots on its power play and went 2-for-6.

The Avalanche didn't practice Wednesday, their first day off since training camp started last week. They play Dallas at the Pepsi Center on Thursday.

*****

The Avalanche announced three more roster cuts Wednesday:

Defensemen Gage Ausmus and Nicolas Meloche were assigned to San Antonio (AHL), and left wing Ty Lewis was returned to Brandon (WHL).



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