Last-Minute Avalanche Changes, News, Reports Before Game 2

We have some last-minute updates from practice this morning We have updates on the injury reports of Zachary Leroux and Logan O'Connor And we also have an update on who is going to be in net tonight against the Blues. Welcome to avalanche digest I'm Copeland Johns and as always don't forget to subscribe 80% of you are not subscribed. It's completely free and you get daily updates on the Colorado Avalanche So we have our goaltender for tonight in net tonight will be Mackenzie Blackwood yet again Against the Blues the Blues will be slinging out Jordan Bennington Mackenzie Blackwood getting a start even though his last start was not the greatest gave up four goals on 31 shots Not exactly what you want to see from the guy. You are paying to be your starting goaltender, but even though He didn't do so Well the last time it looks like Bednar is still giving him the starting opportunity on this team And I really want to see him use more of that six foot four six foot five frame that he has And he got into great shape this summer. So he definitely needs to use some of that training to his ability as well I think we're saving Scott Wedgwood for when we get to our back-to-back We have two of them in the next week and a half I believe we have one on Wednesday and Thursday or Tuesday and Wednesday one of those combinations of days Where Wedgwood will definitely be playing one of them. This is the next two games after this blue series Those will be against Calgary and Winnipeg I think Winnipeg is the first game so I we might see Wedgwood in game one and we might see Blackwood in game two Then we'll have a two-day gap will replay the Toronto Maple Leafs and then a three-day gap before we go back-to-back against the Stars Or both games, so that's the update on who's in net We also have an update on the injury Zachary Lerow is not going to be on the ice tonight There were some rumors that he may end up playing tonight But those have been squashed by Jared Benard Jared Benard has said that He seems like he will not skate with the team tonight against the Blues. All right, speaking of tonight We have a live stream tonight for the game against the Blues 9 p.m. Eastern. Make sure you join We have a lot of fun as always with those streams I can't show the game but we can definitely talk about things while I Commentate and we chat about things in between periods you let out your frustrations You let out the things that you love to talk about and we just have a great time The last one went really well I'm excited to do it again, and it looks like for the scheduling of these things. I will probably be doing it for home night Rivalry games. That's the goal right there. So from our buddy mark He had our takeaways from morning skate today running 11-7 again since we are still down Lerow and Logan O'Connor Anticipation is building a locker room for Gabriel Landis Goggs 800th career game James Schwartz isn't making his mark in Colorado and fitting in Swimmingly, so yeah, Gabriel Landis Goggs is about to play his 800th game good for him We have his career stats up here. So 799 there in the games played total 263 goals 344 assists he could be well on his way to a thousand if he did not have to miss those few seasons But I like that we get to celebrate these milestones With him now that he is back on the team Hopefully he can stay healthy for longer so we can see more of him for the next few Seasons. I know Landis Gogg is only going to be under contract for a couple years And then we'll have to talk about his contract situation if he's going to retire or not given his Injury situation. I don't know exactly as it says in the bottom left corner Taylor McCarr is cleared from his injury So not exactly sure where he is designated to go just yet But he is not either with the Eagles or with the avalanche as of right now so Here is a little bit more of an update Laurel is out tonight Both he and O'Connor are getting close with a few days before the ABS play again They're playing it safe and targeting the back-to-back next week They may each split the back-to-back and by next week I'm pretty certain they're talking about the games that are in three to three days Against the Jets and Calgary. If not, they're talking about the back-to-back that is Against Dallas at home and against Dallas on the road if it's against Dallas at home on the road, that's great I'm gonna be at the game that's in Dallas since I am located in Texas. It's the easier one for me to go to one thing that bringing both of them back brings a concern to me is TJ Hughes, where does he fit in all this? He may get sent down once both of them are back or they may do a rotation between the three of them We may see somebody else get sent down depending on how they're doing I know TJ Hughes didn't exactly blow up the stat sheet in his first game and He's only gonna have another game or two to impress before we possibly see him get sent down to the AHL I definitely like having him on the top line I know he's gonna make those rookie mistakes every rookie does But I think TJ Hughes definitely deserves a chance to keep his position on the team I'd like to see how he performs tonight and in the next game as well I think TJ Hughes has an opportunity here and he better not He better not fumble this chance because once Laurent and Logan O'Connor are back that bottom Line does not stay very solid for very long You don't know exactly who's gonna be staying with the team and who's going to be sent down I don't know exactly how the cap is going to work if both of them are healthy and they're all in a lineup I don't know if Bednar can keep all them. He may be able to but Yet again, probably Noah Juleson will be getting sent down I'm sure we don't want to be doing 11 and 7 for our entire season We'll move to our 12 and 6 But that would be adding Logan O'Connor and the row and that would be subtracting Juleson And that would still need one more forward to back off the lineup and that would probably be TJ Hughes considering He doesn't have too much experience. I still like him on there He may just be a guy who comes up during injuries throughout the season, but so be it more updates on The practice this morning Zachary Leroux was skating in a regular Jersey today They thought he was going to be an option, but Logan O'Connor was in a non contact Mackenzie black But of course in net as we talked about before here were some things that were discussed after the last game This was McKinnon on a Brant Clark. He said Brant Clark plays hard. He gets on a guy's skin He's a really good defenseman but you know sometimes when you play like that you have to fight Nathan McKinnon basically saying once if you're going to act like a Rat and get under people's skins be that kind of rough player You're gonna have to answer the bell when the time comes Brant Clark, of course did but Nathan McKinnon didn't really give him much of a chance to run either way I know this is a lot of stuff that Brant Clark did during the playoffs last year as well He definitely was starting scrums, but he wasn't really finishing You know the responsibility it's it's the hockey player thing It's if you're gonna start something you've got to be able to deal with the consequences and Brett Clark Last postseason was definitely trying to run away I don't care that he's younger than McKinnon. A lot of people were saying Oh, he's fighting a 21 year old young defenseman at the same time It's just how hockey is if you can't pick on the superstars if you're not willing to let the superstars pick on you So here's what Nathan McKinnon had to say about our power play He said the power play unit needs to get on the same page a little bit I think guys are a little stuck positional as went four for five on the power play tonight But McKinnon still sees need for big improvements and I do think there needs to be big improvement Mostly the big improvements need to be figuring out how to switch positions whenever they're rotating through the zone and figuring out how to not make errant passes that are gonna get tipped out of the zone and create Oddman rushes for the other team. I think it's going to be Pretty It's gonna be hard to get a lot of the top line players to fix things That's why I think the second unit is a fan Tastic thing for the Colorado Adelaide Speaking of the Senate the second unit better I had a lot to say about the second unit Said that'll be a little bit of a sacrifice from our top guys in reference to Ben are using both power play units because the top unit used to just spend a whole minute and 30 seconds of the Powerplay on the ice and by the time the second unit got entry to the zone the power play was Essentially over so they didn't really get a lot of work last season And I think working two units equally is going to definitely help out this team a lot and especially when you have one unit on the ice for a minute and a Half a minute and a half is a long shift in the world of hockey So I'd imagine a lot of those power play guys are really tired at that last 20 or 30 seconds So what's the point of having a group of tired guys on the top line? That's where you're gonna give up your shorthanded goals is whenever everyone is too tired to skate back and everyone starts making lazy passes Because they need to keep their energy high throughout the entire power play. That's why I like switching the power play units pretty evenly Yet again, here's what our power play percentage looks like right now. It's of course 80% 4 for 5 Let's hope to keep that up going in to tomorrow or tonight my bad. Let's beat Jordan Biddington Let's beat the Blues rivalry game tonight. I'm really excited. Don't forget to join the stream and yet again, don't forget to subscribe Thank you very much. I'll see you guys next time