Time to get serious.
The Avalanche have two preseason games remaining, starting with Friday’s game against Minnesota at the Pepsi Center, and they’ll be using veteran-laden lineups in both.
The Avalanche are down to 29 players after sending 2018 first-round pick Martin Kaut and five others to the AHL Colorado Eagles on Thursday (see below), and they practiced as a single group for the first time since camp began two weeks ago.
“Absolutely,… coach Jared Bednar said when I asked him if the Avalanche need to set a tone in these final two games and in practices next week before opening regular-season play against the Wild on Oct. 4 at the Pepsi Center. “I think it’s at that point of the training camp.
“I try to evaluate what we’ve done in training camp. I think we’ve got a lot of good work accomplished here. Today was a special team’s day. I think that was real important, getting down to one group and going through some of that stuff – where guys are going to play, getting some touches in different situations, 5 on 3, 4 on 3 and 5 on 4. The penalty killers look like they’re in tune.
“I think as camp goes on we should see the intensity level increase,… he said. “I know it’s been tough for some of our veteran guys because they wanted to play a game early and then they really kind of dialed in on these last two games. That’s their plan, I’m in on that plan.
“I think the 10, 11, 12 days of practice got a little monotonous and at times we had dips, but I liked our energy today. They’re excited to play (Friday) and I think we’ll get a good energetic group with guys kind of focusing in on the home opener and doing whatever it takes for us to get to where we need to be come that day.…
Philipp Grubauer will be in goal Friday and Semyon Varlamov on Sunday in Dallas.
Nathan MacKinnon and his linemates, Gabriel Landeskog and Mikko Rantanen, will play their first game since Sept. 18, a 5-1 home loss to Vegas in the preseason opener.
“Practices have been pretty repetitive,… MacKinnon said. “It’ll be nice to play some games. That’s why we practice and I trained all summer, to play games. It’s another two tune-up games, get a feel, get back to being good and hopefully be ready (for the opener).
“Winning’s fun, but hopefully we get better and play our game. We went 6-0 (in preseason) two years ago and came in last place. I need to get back to what I need to hopefully be successful.…
Forward Vladislav Kamenev has a lower-body injury and didn’t practice Thursday. He was hurt Wednesday in the Avalanche’s 3-1 loss to Dallas.
Three defensemen aren’t healthy: Anton Lindholm (upper-body injury), Conor Timmins (post-concussion symptoms) and David Warsofsky (undisclosed). Lindholm and Timmins skated and shot pucks on the second rink at Family Sports while the rest of the team practiced on the regular rink.
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Aside from Kaut, who had two assists in three preseason games, here are the others who were assigned to the Eagles:
Center Igor Shvyrev, left wing Ty Lewis, defensemen Sergei Boikov and Ryan Graves, and goalie Pavel Francouz. Graves has to clear waivers.
The Avalanche released forward Cody Bass from his professional tryout.