Game Preview: Avalanche Want to Build Off Successful Season Opener

The home opener feels a lot different this year. Last season, the Avalanche entered opening night in Vegas with only two of their top five wingers available. And a fourth one, Jonathan Drouin, didn’t make it out of that game healthy. They also got trounced 8-4 and couldn’t outscore their goalie issues.

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Fast-forward a year, and the two wingers that did play that night, Mikko Rantanen and Drouin, are both gone. But the options that are here? Gabe Landeskog, Martin Necas, Artturi Lehkonen, Valeri Nichushkin, and even Victor Olofsson and Ross Colton on the third line.

It’s quite the depth.

Colorado won 4-1, Scott Wedgewood was excellent in goal, and the team already looks like a Stanley Cup contender with a no-nonsense attitude.

“You never really knew who was sitting beside you in the locker room, some days coming in,” Wedgewood said, referring to his first year with the Avalanche.

The Avs will play the same lineup as the one they used in Los Angeles, albeit with some in-game adjustments they’d like to make.

Bednar referenced the early parts of the first period that he’d like to see play out differently. It took about 8–9 minutes for the team to really get going. Aside from that, the head coach also noted that the first power play unit did an excellent job getting set up in the offensive zone, but didn’t generate much from there.

He’d also, obviously, like to see fewer penalties. And more of the same in terms of a commitment to checking and defending.

READ MORE: 10 Observations: The Depth, the Personnel, the Experience — What a Nice Change

As for the team at the other end, the Avs don’t plan on taking the Utah Mammoth lightly. It’ll be the first game with J.J. Peterka, since the forward was acquired from Buffalo over the offseason.

The Mammoth have playoff aspirations, and a solid first season to build on. Their defense core spent most of last year injured, but for their sake, ideally that won’t happen again.

“Skilled, very skilled team. Quick team, really good possession team in all three zones,” Bednar said of the visitors. “They don’t make it easy on you on the defensive side because they skate really well, and they can be a handful offensively.

“They are a creative group. They don’t like to throw the puck away in the offensive zone, so they play with it a lot, and so you’re going to get some isolated one-on-ones in the defensive zone. We have to use our skating to our advantage, and when we can, use our physicality to our advantage. But you’ve got to be comfortable playing in all three zones against these guys, with and without the puck.”