Adrian Dater
EDMONTON, ALBERTA – Ryan Graves continues to be a revelatory find for the Colorado Avalanche, a Nova Scotia kid who toiled in the minors for several years before having a big, bust-out year for the Avs in 2019-20. The NHL’s plus-minus leader in the regular season (+40), Graves now plays on the top-2 Avs defense alongside partner Cale Makar.
Graves, like the rest of his Avalanche teammates, is holed up at the J.W. Marriott in Edmonton for the Western Conference playoffs. He was a leading man in the Avs’ 2-1 victory over the St. Louis Blues in their round-robin game on Monday, scoring the Avs’ first goal.
On Tuesday, in the first of an occasional series, Graves took some time to give Colorado Hockey Now a first-person account of what life has been like for him so far in Edmonton:
You could only take a couple bags with you on the trip here, so I couldn’t pack a ton of stuff. But I did take a few books, and I also took my putter and a little putting hole. I got a little putting green going on here in my room. My putting’s only been OK. The room’s got a little left-to-right break to it, so it’s not as straightforward as most hotel rooms seem to be.
I’m reading the book “American Kingpin” right now. It’s pretty good so far, pretty interesting. We’ve got a pretty good number of readers on our team, people might be surprised. I’ve gotten a couple books already from Landy, EJ reads, Cale is a reader. I actually got recommended (American Kingpin) by Logan O’Connor. We’ve got a similar taste in things like that. He recommended it, so I ordered it from the Barnes and Noble website. We’ve got so much time in the bubble that I don’t want to just be sitting around all the time, just looking at a blue screen. I want to read a little bit, instead of just looking at my phone all the time.
I’m watching some TV shows too though. I’ve been watching that (Netflix series) on Jeffrey Epstein. When we were back in Denver, I got into a show called “Kingdom.” It’s a UFC show. But right now, there’s so much hockey on. So I’ve been watching a lot of games. A couple of guys, we also have walked over to a few games at the arena. I watched the Dallas Stars game yesterday against Vegas. I also went to the Calgary-Edmonton exhibition game.
I mean, there’s not a whole lot to do really, so being able to walk over from the J.W. to the rink is nice. They only started allowing people to make reservations at the restaurants here a few days ago, so I’ve only been out to dinner the couple of times where we’ve gone out as a team. There’s only like three or four restaurants we can really go to, so I don’t wanna go to them all too early and get sick of them.
Otherwise, we hang out a lot in our little lounge area that we have at the hotel. Some guys play cards, but mostly you just hang and watch a game on the TV or something.
The biggest jokester on the team probably is Z (Nikita Zadorov). He’s always chirping at guys, but he takes a fair amount back. He’s good that way though. There’s nothing worse than the guy who’s always giving it but can’t take it. He probably takes more than he gives actually. He loves to banter. It’s good to have guys like that around in the playoffs, where it can get pretty serious.
It’s definitely a little weird having so many other teams in your same hotel and bubble areas. A lot of guys have been saying it’s got a “World Cup of Hockey” feel to it. But guys are friendly. I mean, we all know we’re in a different situation, and stuff that happens on the ice stays on the ice. But yeah, it can be a little awkward when you get in the elevator with three other guys and you’re the only guy from your team on it.
I think it will get weirder as the playoffs get (deeper) with that maybe. Maybe you’re five games in on a series with a team and you run into them in the elevator. Maybe we’ll need to get separated or something (laughs). But guys are good about it. It’s all just such a unique situation we’re in.