Avs hold team meeting this morning, with “to the point” discussions

The Avs clearly view tonight’s game with the San Jose Sharks in high importance. They want the win, and maybe more important, they want to shake some of the bad habits that have left fans feeling somewhat underwhelmed by their 11-7-1 record, currently good enough for only fourth place in the Honda West Division.

To that end, the Avs held a team meeting this morning in San Jose, one in which coach Jared Bednar said there were some “to the point, honest and fair” questions/discussions. Veteran forward Brandon Saad told Colorado Hockey Now that the meeting was productive and that the main message was: “The biggest thing is just consistency. Knowing how good we can be when we show up to play.”

Saad said there have been times when “we’ve kind of taken the night off” and that included Monday’s 6-2 loss to the last-place Sharks.

Said defenseman Devon Toews: “It’s tough at times with the expectations with our team. Consistency is something we have to really focus on.”

Bednar said he liked the way the team went about its business at the morning skate, and said: “we’re ready to go for tonight. I sense we’re a hungry group here this morning.”

Let’s see what happens.

Here’s the lineup for tonight, per Bednar:

Landeskog-MacKinnon-Rantanen

Saad-Kadri-Burakovsky

Nichushkin-Compher-Donskoi

Jost-Bellemare-O’Connor

D

Graves-Girard

Toews-MacDonald

Renouf-Timmins

Grubauer in goal.

The Avs are heavy favorites to win the game at SuperBook Colorado, which lists them as -205 to win. Check out the other odds boosts on the SuperBook Boosts page, including a very attractive parlay involving the Avs and also a prop bet involving Nathan MacKinnon.