Avalanche Locker Room: Olofsson On Being ‘Beasts’ With Tufte

Fredrik Olofsson looks to be the favorite for the 4C job with the Colorado Avalanche, and he was in a great mood after the 4-3 victory over the Dallas Stars.

Of course, he’s always been in a great mood whenever I’ve talked to him. He’s a fun interview, and had a lot of interesting things to say about playing center, the move to Colorado, and his chemistry with Riley Tufte and Joel Kiviranta.

After you watch what he had to say, give a read to what Avalanche head coach Jared Bednar said after his team moved to 2-2 in the preseason.

Bednar on players making roster decisions difficult: 

You want to see guys play their best, and then make the decisions off of that. The guys that are fighting for spots, we’re trying to keep playing them and playing them and playing them. It just gives us more education on what they can do over a regular week, two weeks, three weeks, going into what it would look like in the regular season. We’re starting to figure out what guy’s strengths are, and where some of their weaknesses are, and we’ll have to make some tough decisions down the road.

We need penalty killers, and it will be a factor, for sure.

Bednar on Olofsson playing center:

I think he’s been really good at center. He’s been really competitive on draws, he’s a good two-way player, he’s chipping in on the offensive side of it. Responsible guy. Yeah, he looks good in the middle of the ice. I mean, he’s played the middle of the ice his whole life, until last year.

Bednar on Jedlicka’s status:

I don’t know what the plan is for him, to be honest with you (on where he’ll play). I don’t know the severity of his injury either. He was in the training room getting evaluated when the game finished, so I haven’t had a chance to catch up with the trainers yet. We’ll have more information tomorrow, though.

Bednar on his top line:

I liked that line a lot. You know, they created some really good scoring chances, made some nice plays. I love the quickness of Drouin tonight. He showed up in a few different spots, using his speed and made some great plays, both 5-on-5 and on the powerplay. He checked hard, so I’m really liking his effort and what he’s bringing right now.