Here’s some encouraging news as the Avalanche prepare for their first-round playoff series with Calgary: Mikko Rantanen is expected to play when the series begins Thursday.
“I would say we’re going into this first round as healthy as we can hope for. It looks to me like Mikko is going to be ready,… coach Jared Bednar said after practice Monday.
“We got all our key guys in, our roster is basically all available to us. That’s the way you want to go into it.…
#Avs Mikko Rantanen (red non-contact Jersey) at practice this morning, pic.twitter.com/uxF4ooyEbh
— Rick Sadowski (@RickS7) April 8, 2019
Rantanen, who missed the final eight regular-season games after getting injured March 21 against Dallas, practiced while wearing a non-contact jersey. The Avalanche will be off Tuesday, but Bednar said Rantanen could take part in a full contact practice Wednesday while wearing a regular jersey.
Rantanen is still considered to be injured and won’t be available to the media until after he’s had a full contact practice.
(All times MT) Thurs, 8 p.m. at Calgary Sat, 8:30 p.m, at Calgary Mon, April 15, 8 p.m. Pepsi Center Wed, April 17, 8 p.m. Pepsi Center *Fri, April 19, TBD at Calgary *Sun,, April 21, TBD at Pepsi Center *Tue, April 23, TBD at Calgary * If necessary
“Great news,… Bednar said. “He’s been progressing just like we hoped he would and today he gets some contact, light contact, looks like he’s doing everything unrestricted so we’ll see how he comes out of it today, but it looks like he’s a potential player for us on Thursday.…
Rantanen was Colorado’s second-leading scorer with 87 points (31 goals, 56 points) in 74 games and spent most of the season on the top line with center Nathan MacKinnon (41 goals, 99 points) and left wing Gabriel Landeskog (34 goals, 75 points), who returned March 29 after missing nine games with a shoulder injury.
“You’re never going to feel perfect at this time of the year as a player,… Bednar said. “You have to go and play when you’re not a hundred percent. We’ll have some guys that do that, but so will (the Flames).…
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The Avalanche truly believe they can win this series, even though the Flames are the obvious favorite, having finished first in the Pacific Division with 50 wins and 107 points. The Avalanche were fifth in the Central Division with 38 wins and 90 points. Calgary won all three regular-season meetings.
“We have to respect what they’ve done,… Bednar said. “They have 107 points, they ran away with the Western Conference, they’re second in goals for, top 10 in goals against. They have superstar players, I think it’s five guys with 70 points plus, a lot of guys you have to pay attention to and they have a five-man attack; their defense helps a lot. They have a lot of impact players, so we have to be ready to go, play our best.
“At the same time, our finish to our season should give us a lot of confidence that we can go and beat anybody because we beat really good teams going down the stretch to get in, in games that mattered, not only to us but also to them in their seeding and trying to get into the playoffs, so that should give our team a lot of confidence in what we do, in the way we want to play. That’s important too.
“Let’s make no mistake about it, we’re going in to win this one and that’s our mindset. I think our guys getting a taste of it last year, we’re hungry for it this year, so I’m anxious to see what our guys will do.…
The Avalanche went 8-0-2 down the stretch (before a meaningless loss in San Jose on Saturday) to make the playoffs for the second year in a row, defeating several quality teams (Dallas, Vegas, Winnipeg) along the way. “Hopefully it will make us better,… MacKinnon said. “We've been playing playoff hockey for two months now. Every game's been kind of do-or-die, similar to last year. I think we're fresh and we have Mikko coming back. It's exciting.…