Avalanche morning skate notebook: Nikita Zadorov scratched again, plus coronavirus talk

SAN JOSE, Calif. – Hello from San Jose, where the show will go on tonight, despite worries from health officials here in Santa Clara County about big crowds gathering to watch things like NHL hockey games – which the Avalanche will have tonight against the San Jose Sharks.

The coronavirus is all over the news here in Northern California, and there are precautions the NHL is starting to take to limit exposure to players, personnel and fans. While some teams have banned media from going into locker rooms to talk to players, the Avalanche has yet to do that.

There was, however, this notice posted outside the visitors’ room here today:

New rules pic.twitter.com/n8SH6autdF

— Adrian Dater (@adater) March 8, 2020

I have committed three of those acts with Avs players before, but I have yet to hug a player in my career. Yes, I have seen at least one media member do that this year, however.

Hockey players don’t exude fear about much of anything, so there is definitely no panic about the virus in the Avs’ dressing room, I can tell you that. That said, Gabe Landeskog did have a reminder that it isn’t all about the players with this thing.

“I’m not a doctor, not a specialist on the matter, but asking our doctor, at our ages and how healthy we are, it’s gonna be just a cold. The only thing that worries me is I got a four-month-old daughter at home, so that’s what scares ya,” Landeskog said. “I generally don’t get worked up about too many things. But, obviously, it’s growing and people are getting infected and it’s all over the world.”

Landeskog said he “can’t imagine” playing games with no fans in the stands, if it comes down to that. A few stalls over, teammate Matt Nieto said the same thing.

“It would just be too weird. I don’t know how you’d feel as much intensity, as a player, if that were to happen,” Nieto said.

About tonight’s game: Nikita Zadorov will be a healthy scratch again. Despite the Avs giving up six goals in the game against Vancouver in which Big Z was also a healthy scratch, coach Jared Bednar will go with the same lineup as faced the Canucks.

“He keeps working hard, he’ll get a chance to go back in, for sure,” Bednar said, when asked about Zadorov.

Bednar was asked why Zadorov would sit tonight as opposed to, say, Ian Cole, who was on the ice for Vancouver’s first three goals and saw his ice time diminish drastically?

“The difference being for me, ‘Coler’ has been real good, real responsible here lately for us, and I feel like Nikita’s game was on a decline for a longer period of time,” Bednar said.

Pavel Francouz will start in goal for Colorado.