Colorado Avalanche Preseason: 3 Great Answers to our Questions

Despite being out-gunned in the NHLer department, and starting a goalie who’s never played in North America, the Colorado Avalanche beat the Vegas Golden Knights last night.

The Colorado Avalanche enjoyed a 5-3 victory over the Vegas Golden Knights last night. If you read my preview, then you know I had little to no confidence that the baby Avs would prevail over a mostly NHL-stocked VGK team that had yet to lose a preseason game.

The Avalanche sure love to step up their game when you’re least expecting it.

Unfortunately, this was the first preseason game that wasn’t televised. So, here we had the most competitive of all the Avs’ preseason games so far, and we could even watch it. We could, at least, listen to the new Altitude Radio host, Conor McGahey, call the game. (Full disclosure: He sounds exactly like Mike Haynes, an impression intensified by the fact that Peter McNab was serving as his co-host.)

That said, a Vegas blogger (for Hockey Buzz) in attendance did record most of the goals on their big screen:

The video is hard to see, but it’s better than nothing. Props to Sheng Peng for doing this at all.

Anyway, a quick note before we get to the questions: Anton Lindholm drew a penalty in the first period. Unfortunately, he left the game with an upper-body injury. No news yet on the prognosis.

Now, on to the questions from the preview.

Is Coaching an Issue?

Fine, probably not. Coach Jared Bednar’s plan was always to evaluate the “kids” in the first four games before giving Avs roster players Games 5 and 6 to play.

Well, that means I probably should wait until after those games to answer this question. After all, Colorado only iced six legit NHLers last night, only one of whom (Samuel Girard) is a starter.

Who will Start to Develop Chemistry?

Defensive prospect Ryan Graves scored the first goal of the preseason. He also recorded an assist on the first goal of last night’s game, scored by J.T. “Mr. Clutch” Compher. That’s got to be making a good impression on the coaching staff.

Three of the Colorado Avalanche’s main sophomores skated last night. In addition to Compher’s goal, sophomores Sam Girard and Alexander Kerfoot recorded an assist each. Ancillary sophomore, Dominic Toninato, also recorded an assist.

Martin Kaut recorded an assist on Compher’s goal. He’s been skating on a line with Tyson Jost and Alexander Kerfoot. But maybe Compher is more his speed.

Will Scoring Continue to be a Problem?

Thankfully, no. As noted, the Colorado Avalanche recorded five goals. Here’s how scoring played out:

• JT Compher ( Martin Kaut, Ryan Graves)
• Carl Soderberg (Alexander Kerfoot, Sam Girard) PPG
• Sheldon Dries (Mark Alt, Logan O’Connor)
• Scott Kosmachuk ( (AJ Greer, Dominic Toninato)
• Vladislav Kamenev (unassisted) ENG

It’s gratifying to see the few NHLers in the lineup recording points.

Side note: Goalie Pavel Francouz made his debut tonight. He sounded like he looked good. He made some key saves and it didn’t sound like he let in any soft goals. He stopped 29 of 32 shots, with a .906 save percentage. That’s significantly better than co-starters Semyon Varlamov or Philipp Forsberg put up.

Remember, this was Francouz’ first-ever game on NHL ice. The 28-year-old didn’t even participate in the Rookie Faceoff.

The Colorado Avalanche head home to host the Dallas Stars tomorrow night. The game is another un-televised one. However, you can listen to the game live on 92.5, Altitude Radio.