Colorado Avalanche: Are The Players Ready For the Playoffs?

Are the Colorado Avalanche players ready for the Play-Offs after such a long break? I think so given what we are seeing of them on the ice.

A few weeks ago, the very first group of Colorado Avalanche players hit the ice, when the rinks were opened up again and players allowed to recommence practice.

In the Avalanches case, the first players back on the ice were Nathan MacKinnon, Gabriel Landeskog, Nazem Kadri, Philip Grubauer, and Ian Cole.

Interesting how they are the more veteran players who know what it will take to win a Stanley Cup.

Others have slowly returned over the coming days with one of the last players to return, Francouz.

As of Monday, training camp starts. The players will be back in full on intense hockey mode, preparing as they would for the start of any season.

Only this is different. This isn’t the start of the season; this is the start of the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

Being Mentally Ready Is the Key

A number of the players, Grubauer, Landeskog, Cole, talked on Sports Social about being ready. Having the mindset that they are coming back to play to win the Stanley Cup.

It is a vastly different environment that they find themselves in to do that though.

Strict guidelines leading up to the first official game on August 1stand following on for the weeks leading up to the Cup being awarded mean a very different playing and living environment for them all.

Not sure what full team interaction would look like. How will the team have an all-team meeting in the circumstances? Will they be doing it via Zoom or some other platform. Or will it be possible to have the meeting in a large room under proper social distancing protocols?

They will be staying at the Marriot hotel linked to both the playing and practice rinks, according to the Altitude team, which is a bonus by the sound of it.

Maybe this closeness and isolation, even though socially distanced, will play a different role in the team’s mental preparation and the chemistry rebuilding that players also talked about needing to occur.

They’re All Having Fun

From the Avalanche social media team photos, it looks like everyone who has returned is having fun, and that’s a word they all used during the season.

If we gauge their fun meter, I’d say the team are fully on track to be ready for these Stanley Cup playoffs.

The Part Mental Excitement Will Play

More from Mile High Sticking

Time will tell this week how the players perform in their drills and other tests to get them fully ice ready. I sense a different level of mental excitement that isn’t what they finished the end of the season with, and yet it might be better.

Physically the Colorado Avalanche are back to full strength. Apart from Colin Wilson, who it seems won’t be part of the 28-man squad going to the Playoffs. All of the other Avalanche players are fully healthy and ready to return to play.

Let’s see how quickly the chemistry reignites between the players on each line. That will be up to Coach Bednar and his team to set in motion.

Maybe he will go back to the original lines that we started the season with. And the chemistry between each of them was on fire.

The Colorado Avalanche ARE Ready For the Playoffs

It seems as if all of the Colorado Avalanche players have made the decision to return to play. They had a choice not to, but with all of them there in the mix right now, they are going for it.

If the team is half as excited as us fans are for the return of hockey, we are going all the way, no doubt about it.

Stanley Cup Playoffs here we come. The Avalanche are ready!

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