My Avalanche season preview is on NHL.com, along with three keys to success.
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Remember all that depth the Avalanche were supposed to have on the forward lines this season? It's getting thinner all the time a week before the Oct. 9 season opener in Minnesota.
Jesse Winchester, who figured to center the fourth line, will be sidelined indefinitely to recover from a concussion he sustained Tuesday in the first period of the Avalanche's 2-0 loss in Calgary, and coach Patrick Roy said Wednesday that third-line center John Mitchell (migraines) isn't expected to be available for the opener.
"(Mitchell) is progressing. Every day has been pretty good for him, but nothing has changed on his status," Roy said. "I'll be very surprised if he starts the season."
Patrick Bordeleau won't be ready until December as he recovers from back surgery, but Roy said he's hopeful that Jamie McGinn will play in the opener. McGinn, who has had a back injury, skated Wednesday.
"In his case, I'm pretty confident he'll be there for the first game of the season," Roy said of McGinn.
Who will play on the third line when the season begins is a bit of a mystery.
"There's a lot of if and if," Roy said. "We'll see when everybody's coming back. Right now we're very happy with (Dennis) Everberg and Borna (Rendulic) and (Andrew) Agozzino). That's why they're still here."
Roy said he plans to use those three on the fourth line Thursday night when the Avalanche play the Stanley Cup champion Los Angeles Kings at the World Arena in Colorado Springs. Marc-Andre Cliche will center the third line with Cody McLeod and Max Talbot.
Jarome Iginla won't play, Roy said, because of a "bit of an ankle issue." Nathan MacKinnon will center a line with Gabriel Landeskog and Daniel Briere. Matt Duchene will skate with Ryan O'Reilly and Alex Tanguay.
Reto Berra will be in goal Thursday and Semyon Varlamov will play against the Kings on Saturday in Las Vegas.
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The Avalanche will take an 0-5-1 record into Thursday's game, but Roy said he was happy with how the team played Tuesday even though it was shut out for the second time. The Avalanche have scored seven goals in their first six preseason games.
"It was a good game," he said. "We put more pucks on net and we went to the net. We had our chances. Defensively, since the start of camp we've worked hard on our D-zone coverage, tracking. Yesterday we started our neutral-zone forecheck. I thought the guys did a good job.
"You always want to make sure that you're ready for the first game of the season. Even if you have a perfect (preseason) record, it doesn't mean much if you're going into the first game of the season not feeling good about yourself. I think our guys feel good about themselves. I think we're doing a lot of good things. Scoring goals will come and it's not a concern to me. Winning, losing is not relevant at this time of the season, it's how we play and how good we feel about going into the season."
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Roy didn't have much reaction regarding defenseman Stefan Elliott clearing waivers, enabling him to report to the Lake Erie Monsters for their training camp.
"Am I surprised? Yes and no," he said. "We were ready, if someone would take him, we would respect that. At the same time I think it's great to have him playing down there and hopefully he's going to have a great year."
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Former first-round picks Joey Hishon and Duncan Siemens were among those assigned to the Monsters' training camp as the Avalanche reduced the roster to 29 players.
Sent to Lake Erie were defensemen Bruno Gervais, Daniel Maggio, Max Noreau and Siemens; centers Samuel Henley and Hishon; left wing Michael Schumacher; and goalie Calvin Pickard. Left wing Alexis Pepin was reassigned to Gatineau in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League.
No surprises among the eight remaining defensemen who will start the season in Colorado: Tyson Barrie, Nate Guenin, Jan Hejda, Nick Holden, Erik Johnson, Zach Redmond, Brad Stuart and Ryan Wilson.
Agozzino, Everberg, Rendulic, Ben Street, Tomas Vincour are in the running for one and possibly two extra spots at forward, depending on how quickly McGinn, Mitchell and Winchester recover from their health issues.
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Landeskog is baffled by the Avalanche's offensive problems, wondering why it's been so difficult to score goals.
"I don't know the answer to that," he said. "I think every season we've seen it goes in waves and sometimes you're scoring on everything and sometimes it's hard for the power play even to get a goal. If you want to become one of the better teams in the league you have to learn how to score goals even though you're going through a tough period of time. It's something we have to figure out."
Landeskog also is frustrated by the team's inability to win a game, even if the standings are irrelevant in the preseason.
"This year there's so many games and there hasn't been a lot of practice to get systems figured out with the new guys and get everybody playing together," he said. "Still, there's no excuse for not getting a win yet. We want to get in that win column. We know it's hard to flip the switch once the regular season comes, but for us it's about creating good habits. I think the work habit's been there, it's just details here and there."