This is VERY exciting news... Multiple Avalanche updates

We have some exciting updates to share about the Colorado Avalanche and some of their injured players making good progress and on the cusp of rejoining the team soon. Zach LaRue and Logan O'Connor both received updates for the Colorado Avalanche. One was really good, amazing update. The other one, a little more up in the air. We're going to be getting into all of it right here on Avalanche Digest, as well as what you can expect in this month of October and just how things have been going so far for the Colorado Avalanche. Welcome in, everybody. You know the drill. If you're not subscribed, hit that subscribe button. Don't forget, it's always free to do so. And if you love your daily updates on the Colorado Avalanche, this is the place to be. Now, getting into the news right here, this was tweeted out today at the ABS practice that Zach LaRue would be sticking around to practice with the ABS in a non-contact jersey. And he actually made it through the entire practice. So that is great news for Zach LaRue rejoining the team very shortly. And another thing that kind of struck my eye a little bit was that Logan O'Connor actually didn't practice with the team and was leaving to do some individual work and everyone else is accounted for. So another piece of great news right there. It is just Zach LaRue and Logan O'Connor that are dealing with things. Nobody else at this point in time. That is fantastic news. It is early on in the season. If anyone was feeling banged up at all or something was tweaked, they wouldn't play. That is, we are just way too close into the season, way too early for anyone to have to exert themselves too much physically. So I'm glad that everyone else is accounted for. But I did think it was interesting going further on with Evan Rawls updates that once again, LaRue did make it through the entire practice, even did some penalty kill work. So that is great news. That means he is incredibly soon to return to the lineup. I also thought it was interesting that the power play units remained the same. I was almost sure that when Nazem Qadri had that beautiful saucer pass to Nathan McKinnon, that almost assuredly we would have Qadri on that first power play unit. But it looks like they want to give TJ Hughes a good long look, which I don't hate. It's just, in my mind, it's just kind of unserious. As much as I like TJ Hughes, I am the TJ Hughes stan. He should not be on the first unit at this point in his career. I would love if he gets to that point in his career, but like, what are we doing? Come on now. However, power play was at least good. So if it ain't broke, why fix it, I guess. However, I do think that it is worth mentioning that Jared Bednar himself even said that Zach LaRue could be an option for tomorrow's game at the earliest. So I love to see that. It means that Zach LaRue's injuries really isn't all that bad. The fact that he's pretty much game to day, taking it at a game to game basis. They're like, it could be next game, could be the game after that. Like every game could be his eventual debut for the Colorado Avalanche because preseason games that don't count, don't forget that. I think this is great news for Zach LaRue. I'm excited to see him in a game to bring that punch and his penalty killing ability because the bench for the penalty kill is pretty thin. No Jack Drury and no Val Nichushkin means that guys like Logan O'Connor and Zach LaRue are going to be relied on even more and with both of those injured, it's tough. That's how you get Fedor Svetchkov on your PK. So I do like to see that he is close, but I wanted to circle back on this piece of news here that Logan O'Connor has left to do some individual work. I don't love how this sounds. I think Logan O'Connor has had two major hip surgeries. I believe it's one on each hip in the last two seasons and already Logan O'Connor just wasn't able to be healthy for a single training camp. I don't like how that bodes for the future. I think that when you look at who Logan O'Connor is, he's an incredibly important piece to this lineup. In the lineup, there's no disputing how good of a player he is. He transforms their penalty kill. He is a great defensive winger, just high energy guy and everyone loves him. It's the reason why he's on a six-year deal and very soon into that six-year deal. This is only year two of six and if you guys remember last season for Logan O'Connor, he spent the majority of it injured and on the IR. Now the Avs do not want to put Logan O'Connor on the IR. They are at least hoping that he's soon. He's still qualified as day-to-day, so that's at least good news. The Avs want to accrue cap space and they can't do that if Logan O'Connor is on the IR. So there is a bit of a concern here just going in the future of like, this player is, I don't think you can describe him as anything else, but injury prone and this contract, the one that he was just given not too long ago, is already kind of looking to be a little like, ooh, and we're still early on into it. Okay then, but don't want to exactly sound the alarm on Logan O'Connor, but just I want to be honest, I just don't love the situation of what's going on right with O'Connor. But let's take a look at what the rest of the Avs have coming up here on the schedule. So as you guys can see, we've got the St. Louis Blues coming up tomorrow on Saturday, and then another three-day break, another big break for the Colorado Avalanche, and then they play the Winnipeg Jets and go on the road to play the Flames. So I actually think right here with this road trip, this little Canadian road trip where you play the Jets, you play the Flames, I think this will be pretty indicative of who goes on the road trip. I would fully expect LaRue to go. If he doesn't, I would be pretty concerned as a guy that supposedly is almost ready. If he doesn't play against the Blues, I would almost assuredly say he would be on the road trip, but I am particularly keeping my eye out for Logan O'Connor. I want to see him go on this road trip. If he doesn't, we're kind of getting into worrying territory. That's going to be an happy one. But yeah, so keep your eye on this road trip, which players go on it. Yeah, just knock on wood, keep your fingers crossed for all of these guys. But I did want to talk about this Colorado Avalanche roster and really just say as much as we can doom and gloom about everything, about the goaltending, which I'll get to here in just a second, I think it's important to realize just how good this Avalanche offense is. I mean, I couldn't even fit everyone in the top 10 here. If you look at the more expanded list, it kind of gets a little harder to read the stats, but these are all of the players on the apps currently that have points and it's 13 of them. I mean, so much multifaceted offense in the top 10, Marty Netjes isn't even on here. And I guarantee you Netjes by the end of the season is going to be first, third, uh, worst or second or third. If Kael McCarr just takes off and has an amazing season. Speaking of Kael McCarr, he's at eighth. Nathan McKinnon is outside of the top two. I mean, it is just awesome how much depth and offense this Colorado Avalanche roster has. You've got Parker Kelly showing up big time. Nazem Khadri with his big two assists. Jaden Schwartz looking like he's flawlessly fitting in. I mean, just top to bottom, you have so much depth in this Avalanche lineup and you just feel so good about your top nine. And there's guys here that you would like to see get on the board in the first place, namely TJ Hughes. What does he have in the tank? Gavin Brindley is currently still in the AHL. So you just have so many options for the Colorado Avalanche heading into the rest of this season. And already the depth looks spectacular. It was on display an eight goal game in your home opener. I mean, what more could you ask for? You might be saying, oh, I want better goaltending. Yeah, I did just read your mind. Let's talk about that goaltending though with Mackenzie Blackwood. So obviously his first game is kind of a mixed bag. He ends the night with an 870. I would love if it was a 970. And 31 shots against, 27 saves, four goals against. So it's tough to call it a awful and horrific night just because he was stopping so many high danger chances. But you look at the other end of it and what goals are going in. It's like soft, soft goals. Goals that he saw the entire way. To his credit, the Avalanche never trailed in this game. So he did his job keeping the game tied up. Never let it get too out of control, which is more than you can say what 4GF gave us a couple years ago. But at the same time with Mackenzie Blackwood, you want him to be better. This is not the performance you were hoping for. It's not the performance my fantasy league was hoping for. I'll tell you that. Although the win is still nice. Take that Copeland. But at the same time, I do like the idea of Mackenzie Blackwood going into this season. I mean, he was the one going up and saying, everyone was saying he's in the best physical shape of his life. He's lost like 25 pounds over the offseason. He's been working out. He's ready. He's jazzed to go. I love that mentality. And we will see if that mentality really is true with how he responds to having a bit of a lackluster performance in game one. It's okay. It's the beginning of the season. I don't think taking any goalies first game of the season is gospel. I don't think you should overreact to it, but it will be very telling to see how Mackenzie Blackwood reacts to it. If he goes out next game, he gets like only two goals against, you know, only one goal against, or hey, even goes in and gets a shutty. We would love it. I think that it's up to Mackenzie Blackwood to how mentally fortifiable, I guess, or what that mental fortitude looks like for Mackenzie Blackwood will be demonstrated by how he responds to a performance like this. I think everyone wants to see him do better. He needs to do better if he, frankly, wants to stay on this team as a guy who is being paid over $5 million. The Avs are paying this guy to be a quality starting goaltender. And if this is how he wants to do all season, then he just won't be here. I would even say halfway through the season, he's going to go the way of Georgiev. He's going to be shipped out if this is the way he has to play. But I don't think he will be. I have confidence in Mackenzie Blackwood. Something just feels right about this season. I'm excited to see where the rest of it goes. But namely, this is out of an eight goal performance and is starting the home opener eight game, eight goal performance by the Colorado Avalanche. What is the one thing you can possibly be upset about? I think it's justifiably the goaltending. But that is going to do it for this video. I am excited to see how the rest of this season goes. Hopefully these injuries progress very nicely. We will keep you updated as always, but that is going to do it for this one. Thank you all so much for watching and go Avs!