Avalanche Key Players To Travel on Roadtrip

Hello everyone! I would like to introduce myself. I am Brennan Vogt and I am new to Full Press Hockey… sort of. I spent the summer doing an internship with C.C. Hawkley and we posted a few articles here on Full Press Hockey. I then had an opportunity that I could not pass up. Adrian Dater gave me a chance to write for Colorado Hockey Now as a Colorado Avalanche beat reporter and I could not pass that up. I spent the last four months with Dater until budget concerns forced my release and C.C. jumped on the chance to get me on here. Anywho, here are the updates for the Avalanche practice today.

The Avalanche have been struggling with the power play recently as they have gone 4/42 in the last 14 games. So coach Bednar spent the majority of practice working on the power play. They worked on moving the puck but never on the entry (which is where they are struggling the most). This was the first chance that Nathan MacKinnon was able to work with the power play unit since his return from injury. There have been some obvious chemistry problems since his return. 

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Injury Updates

Some key highlights of the practice were that Valeri Nichushkin (who is listed as day-to-day) was able to skate, as well as Josh Manson. Pavel Francouz was able to skate before the main group with Nichushkin. Manson only was able to skate for about twenty minutes before leaving, while Nichushkin joined the main group for about ten minutes. Evan Rodrigues did not take the ice at all but was seen observing practice from the bench in gym clothes. Later, Bednar said that both Nichushkin and Rodrigues will travel with the team on the two-game road trip, while Manson will stay behind to work with coach Shawn Allard.

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Captain Gabriel Landeskog is progressing with his knee injury but the timetable will be more than likely pushed back. Bowen Byram has had a setback with his lower-body injury, but now he is starting to move forward in his rehab. There has been an idea that neither will play this year and Bednar has said that will not be the case.

Projected lines

Forwards

Lehkonen- MacKinnon-Rantanen

Newhook-Compher-Malgin

MacDermid-Helm-Kaut

Cogliano-Meyers-O’Connor

Defense

Makar-Toews

Girard- Johnson

Englund-Hunt

MacDonald

Goalies

Georgiev

Johansson