The Colorado Avalanche are back in the part of camp where every rep starts to matter a little more. With the preseason opener already in the books and opening night just eight days away, Tuesday’s skate gave the coaching staff a first real chance to dig into the details that usually define this stretch: lineup combinations, special teams looks, and the little roster experiments that can shape the final decisions.
Colorado split into two groups, with the veterans skating first and a younger group following behind them. The most notable development came in that opening group, where Cale Makar was a full participant for the first time since camp opened last week. He lined up on the top pair with Devon Toews, his usual partner, and head coach Jared Bednar said afterward that Makar remains on track to play in one of the final two preseason games on Friday or Saturday.
Makar also clarified that the injury he’s dealing with now is not the same one that bothered him in the Western Conference Final. Still, he said the summer wasn’t exactly smooth sailing.
“Yeah, I mean, It was a little bit of a grind over the summer to kind of get where I am now, especially with both of these [injuries],” Makar said. “Kind of what I’ve been dealing with, but like I said, I’m in the best spot I’ve ever felt right now, so I’m feeling good.”
Tuesday also brought the first clear look at Colorado’s power play, and the top unit was the same five-man group that finished last season: Makar at the point with Nathan MacKinnon, Martin Necas, Nazem Kadri, and Gabe Landeskog. Kadri had joined that first unit shortly after arriving in March, and he was back in that role again.
The second unit had Devon Toews on the point, with Brock Nelson, Artturi Lehkonen, Jaden Schwartz, and Nic Roy. Fedor Svechkov also rotated in with Roy for a few shifts, though Bednar mostly used Svechkov on the penalty kill and kept Roy as the steadier power-play option.
That unit will be worth watching closely. Colorado’s man advantage struggled last season, and it’s one of the areas that has to sharpen up if the Avalanche want to raise their ceiling.
“I think this feels like a clean slate. At least for me, it does.
It’s different,” Makar said about the struggling power play from last season. “You worked a whole season last year to try and get the power play where you wanted to get to, and it just never really felt like it fully- I don’t know if clicks is the right word, but just fully got there.
And I think sometimes you just need a little bit of a break. If you keep moving your feet in quicksand, you just keep sinking deeper and deeper, and it kind of just felt like we were doing that at times.”
The lineup in Group 1 had the feel of an opening-night roster, but Bednar stopped short of locking anything in. He had already said before the Avalanche’s first two preseason games that he still wanted to test a few things, including moving Kadri to the wing and taking a look at T.J.
Hughes at center. That’s what showed up on Tuesday, with Hughes in the second group, and Bednar’s approach suggests he’s not treating anyone’s current spot as final.
Kadri’s move to the wing pushed Svechkov into the third-line center role instead of shifting Roy to the middle. On the fourth line, Parker Kelly skated at center between Logan O’Connor and Zachary L’Heureux. Bednar said Kelly at center is one of the possibilities the staff is considering if Kadri opens the year on the wing.
Even then, he still wouldn’t fully commit. Bednar said that in one of the two remaining preseason games, Svechkov will get the 4C job with Kelly and O’Connor on the wings.
For now, the message is pretty clear: Colorado has choices, and despite the shortened camp, Bednar is using the time to run through all of them. That kind of flexibility hasn’t always been available here, but this year’s group gives the Avalanche more depth than they’ve had in camp in years.
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Avalanche Suddenly Face A Bigger Problem Than The Score Against Winnipeg
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By the time Colorado headed into the third period down 2-0, the score was only part of the concern. The game had already turned choppy and physical, with penalties interrupting the rhythm, and the Avalanche needed a cleaner, calmer final frame just to give themselves a chance at a comeback. For a team that usually wants to dictate pace, the problem was less about chasing goals than finding a way to stop creating new ones against itself. [Read more 🡒]
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The harder part for the Avalanche is that the decision tree does not stop at the obvious veterans. Fabian Lysell and Domenick Fensore are among the players forcing the club to weigh present-day depth against longer-term value, and those calls can get messy fast once waivers enter the picture. Colorado still has time to sort it out, but the final round of camp is usually where a teams depth chart reveals more than anyone planned, and this one looks like it could be especially tight. [Read more 🡒]
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Winnipeg got goals from Gabriel Vilardi, Cole Perfetti and Dylan DeMelo, while Colorados offense came from Georgii Merkulov, with Brett Kulak and Fabian Lysell setting him up. For a team still weighing a few early roster battles, nights like this tend to matter less for the result than for the way individual players handle bigger minutes and a less settled lineup. [Read more 🡒]