Avalanche gets settled in temporary Edmonton home
Avalanche coach Jared Bednar can appreciate what the NHL saw when picking Edmonton as the host city for the Western Conference playoffs. Bednar and his team arrived in the city Sunday and had their first practice Monday — six days before they open round-robin play against St. Louis at Rogers Place, home of the Edmonton Oilers.
Avs players and staff members have their own floor at the JW Marriott, which is across the street from Rogers Place and connected by an enclosed walkway.
“Every team has their own players lounge/lunch/dinner room. We’ve been in there a couple times and there are some commons areas as well, to be able to go hang out and mingle. It is a really nice setup,” Bednar said on a Zoom call Monday. “And being right across the rink from where you’re (going to be) playing is great.”
The Avs and the other 11 Western Conference teams are practicing at local rinks, with Colorado being assigned to four-sheet Terwillegar Arena. Bednar said his team required a 25-minute bus ride to the practice facility.
“Had a great skate, then we worked our way back here. That’s the way it’s going to stay, I
think, for a while,” he said.
Rogers Place, which opened in 2016, has a practice rink attached to it. But for now, that will be used only for pregame skates when games begin, Bednar said.
The Avs, who are carrying 31 players, have an exhibition game Wednesday against Minnesota at Rogers Place (12:30 p.m.) before opening the nonelimination round-robin versus the Blues. Teams can carry a 22man lineup into an exhibition game, with a 13th forward and a seventh defenseman. The exhibition game will be available on Altitude and also covered by the NHL Network and NHL.TV. Blackouts may apply.
“I’d like to play a lineup that looks a lot like what we would go into the round-robin with,” Bednar said. “We’ll take all the time that we need to decide before Wednesday on that.”
Avs captain Gabe Landeskog said playing in Edmonton feels like the Olympics or another international tournament.
“Obviously, it’s a bit of an adjustment … when you’re walking through lobbies or elevators with guys from the other team,” he said Monday. “We kind of stick to ourselves. We got familiar with the hotel (Sunday) and this morning we headed out and had a good practice.”
Cale Makar, the Calder Trophy favorite as NHL rookie of the year, was back practicing after missing multiple training camp skates in Denver last week with a minor injury. He grew up in Calgary, a three-hour drive south of Edmonton.
“I’m feeling perfect now,” Makar said. “I had a really good practice today.”
Colorado’s final two roundrobin games will be Aug. 5 against Dallas and Aug. 8 against Vegas. Altitude will also televise those games.
The traditional 16-team first round of the playoffs begins Aug. 11, with the Avs assured of being among the top four Western Conference teams.
“There’s only so much time before we actually start the real thing,” Erik Johnson said. “(Right now is) an important step in where we’re trying to go.”