Colorado Avalanche Offseason Training Program Should Promote Chemistry

The Colorado Avalanche, as a whole, are apparently going to be spending more time in Denver this offseason, which should promote team chemistry.

Every Colorado Avalanche fan heard it throughout the regular season, players constantly bringing up a lack of chemistry on the ice. Luckily, head coach Jared Bednar has a plan to make sure the Avs’ players come into next season more closely knit together.

This is imperative for a coach who didn’t have a chance to implement his systems until a month before the season started. Bednar was robbed of the opportunity to put together an offseason training regiment for his team. He didn’t have the chance to make sure players were focusing on his systems throughout the summer.

Now that he has the opportunity to do all of these things, Avalanche fans should get a better idea of what he is capable of as a coach throughout next season.

And, this goes beyond the fact that every coach gets to use this time to their advantage. Jared Bednar actually has a plan — team chemistry.

Jared Bednar is Focused on Bringing the Team Together

As Joe Sakic himself noted, Jared Bednar didn’t have the chance to lead this team in the same way most NHL coaches lead their teams.

"He was put in a position, late in the game, trying to get prepared for training camp and having that in place with this group, and kind of quickly learning on the job with a new team that he didn’t know much about."

Bednar was hired on August 25, 2017, just under a month before training camp started in Colorado. That’s simply not enough time, especially when players have been spending their entire summers preparing to start a season under a different head coach.

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That won’t be the case this summer, as the Avalanche players will adhere to a regiment suited to Bednar’s liking.

According to the Denver Post, Jared Bednar has already prepared his entire offseason programming, and set the standards for how players must return to the team come training camp.

"Our testing come training camp time is going to be more intense and there’s going to be a lot more to it — both on-ice testing, off-ice testing."

The focus is not only on conditioning, even though he noted that they want “to be one of the best-conditioned teams,” but, it’s also about team chemistry.

"We’ll have guys come back in for a week at a time to train with those guys, kind of bring our team closer together, build a culture that we want going into next season, make our group tighter."

If you’re a Colorado Avalanche fan, you have to like the sound of that.

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Unfortunately, it was clear throughout the season that the players lacked chemistry with one another on the ice. Perhaps that extended into the locker room, and off the ice as well. That has to be why Bednar wants them to focus on training together throughout the summer.

Conclusion

It’s clear that the best teams in the league have a rapport with one another. They always know where they will be on the ice, and off the ice they are usually very close.

Obviously it’s difficult to establish this kind of chemistry when players train all over the world. However, with a focus on ensuring every player returns to Denver here and there over the summer, this rapport can be established.

Next: Four Exciting Developments in the Wings for the Avalanche

To that end, Jared Bednar’s focus is exactly what this team needs right now. Not only will the Avalanche players be highly conditioned, but they will also be closer with one another.

There are exciting developments in the wings folks, and Jared Bednar figures to factor into those developments tremendously next season.

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