Dater’s Daily: Blidh, Megna Sent Back to Eagles By Avalanche; Goals Galore In NHL

Hey all, a good Thursday to you. Been a planes, trains, and automobiles thing for me the last week or so, with an impromptu eastern sojourn for some family stuff. But I have some important, money-saving news for you all in the world of renting a car that I learned on the trip, further down here. But first, let’s do some NHL/Avalanche notes, quotes, thoughts, links, flotsam, and jetsam to get the day started. And, thank you to the dozens of new subscribers from the sale of last week. Hope I can earn your keep moving beyond the first year.

• After the Avalanche OT loss tonight, the team sent Anton Blidh and Jayson Megna back to the Colorado Eagles. Who will be recalled for Friday’s game against the Seattle Kraken? I’m going to bet that Mikhail Maltsev is one player. I think Malts can be a good player moving forward at the NHL level.
• Don’t be shocked if Charles Hudon is a player recalled, too.
• I’m trying to think of any NHL player who went by ‘Charles’, and I’m blanking at the moment.
• I was very impressed by the Avalanche crowd tonight at Ball Arena. The place was sold out, on a Wednesday night in October against Winnipeg. And, you were great. A lively building intensely focused on the game. Well done.
• We’ve all talked about the loss of Nazem Kadri, and the effect it has/might still have on the Avalanche. I want to point out that the loss of Andre Burakovsky wasn’t insignificant either. He had 61 points for the team last year. So far, those points haven’t been adequately replaced.
• Burky will have his first game against the Avalanche Friday night.
• Avalanche reverse-retro jerseys should be out today. I think they’ll have a Colorado Rockies, 1970s-’80s design, but I don’t know for absolute certain.
• If you’re a bettor, the Over has been a good bet so far in the early-season NHL schedule. Goals are coming fast and furious. All three games in the league tonight, for instance, had at least seven goals.
• A podcast I did on 104.3 The Fan today with Mike Evans, talking all things Avs (The Fan)
• Darcy Kuemper modeled the new Washington Capitals reverse-retros Wednesday at practice (Washington Hockey Now)
• A key Red Wings player has gone into the NHL Player Assistance program (Detroit Hockey Now)
• Cale Makar on the Avalanche OT loss last night: “You just can’t let off the gas at any moment. They came out hot at the beginning and we just kind of let them take over the game. We came out in the second and finally started playing our game and it showed. I think for us, it’s just not taking those periods off. We learned that last year and there’s going to be nuances throughout the season that that’s going to happen, but we just have to minimize them and know when that happens and make sure that we do a better job.”
• I don’t remember too many NHL players using the word “nuances” in a sentence.
• So, a car rental recommendation: Check out Turo. It’s kind of the “Airbnb” for rental cars. I saved several hundred dollars on a multi-day rental back east last week/over the weekend. The mainstream car rental companies are getting stupid with their rates, and I refused to be suckered this time. There are a couple of hoops to jump through with Turo, but not too bad.
• The Sharks are awful (San Jose Hockey Now)
• The salary cap could go up $4 million next year (NHL.com)