Mikko Rantanen took part in a full practice Wednesday while wearing a regular jersey and will play Thursday when the Avalanche open their first-round playoff series in Calgary.
“I feel good, I’m excited, and I guess good timing to get back, straight to the playoffs. I’m really excited,” he said.
Rantanen missed the final eight regular-season games because of an upper-body injury he sustained in a March 21 game in Dallas. He was the Avalanche’s second-leading scorer with 87 points (31 goals, 56 assists) in 74 games.
“It's good to see him back in a regular jersey,” captain
Gabriel Landeskog said. “He looked good. He's looked good for the last few skates he's had. You can't really notice anything wrong with him.”
Rantanen spent most of the season on the top line with Landeskog and
Nathan MacKinnon, but he’s expected to be on the second line in Game 1 with
Colin Wilson and
Carl Soderberg.
“He is back, he looks good,” coach
Jared Bednar said. “He’s been working hard. It’s a whole new level of intensity and competitiveness at playoff time, and he’s well aware of that. I think he’s been ramping up nicely and looks better and better, and quicker and quicker every day he’s been on the ice.
“We’ll see how he goes tomorrow in the game and adjust his ice time from there, but I expect him to play a lot, just like he normally does.”
Rantanen said he was concerned the injury could prevent him from being ready for the series opener, and he credited the medical and training staff for moving things along.
“I didn’t miss too much time,” he said. “Obviously when you get hurt you start thinking too much, but the medical team did a good job and got me back in shape, so I’m ready to go and I can’t wait for tomorrow.”
(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
This will be the second playoff experience for Rantanen and a number of teammates who made postseason debuts last year when the Avalanche took top Western seed Nashville to six games.
“I think it helps,” said Rantanen, who had four assists against the Predators. “We have a lot of guys from last year’s team, so we know where we’re going now. Most of the guys played their first games last year.
“(The Flames are) a really good team. They’re first seed, so we don’t have any pressure. When you’re conference champion, you have the pressure. We just go and play our game. Now we’re here and anything can happen.”
*****
The Avalanche were the fourth-most penalized team in the league this season, averaging 9.4 minutes per game. That’s something they need to be careful about against the Flames.
“We’ve talked about it,” Bednar said. “Penalties in general, especially in this series, we draw the most penalties in the league (286) and they draw the second most (275), so they have a dangerous power play. Power plays this time of the year are at a premium so we have to be careful with reaching in, chasing from behind.”
Discipline is more important than ever, and that includes refraining from taking retaliatory penalties against an agitator like Calgary forward
Matthew Tkachuk.
“Just playoff hockey at this point,” said Landeskog, who was assessed a four-game suspension for cross-checking Tkachuk in the neck in a November 2017 game. “Everybody that's in the playoffs usually has got one or two of those guys. That's just the game within the game.”
Nikita Zadorov was more blunt in his thoughts on Tkachuk, who’s also a top forward who had 34 goals and 77 points this season.
“I don’t think he’s a physical player, he just tries to get under the guys’ skin,” Zadorov said. “He’s a little rat on the ice, so we saw that before, it’s nothing special. We won’t make any specialties for him, we’re just going to go up there and play hard against them.
“I don’t think we have any players who’s doing that stuff. Our physical guys just play a physical game; they’re not playing dirty. If you want to be a guy like that that people hate, I don’t think it’s a good thing. He tries to draw you into stuff to make sure you take a penalty.”
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