The Colorado Avalanche completed four practices in their training camp for the first week of Phase 3 of the NHL’s response to the COVID-19 crisis.
The Colorado Avalanche completed four days’ worth of training camp starting Monday, July. They had 34 players, including goalies, at camp. They will not be able to take all the players into the bubble when they leave for the hub city on July 16.
Here are the players who attended camp:
See you tomorrow! #GoAvsGo pic.twitter.com/YgUKQSOHRa
— Colorado Avalanche (@Avalanche) July 13, 2020
There aren’t too many surprises of who was invited to camp. A notable absence is Martin Kaut. He has played nine NHL games, and one more game will complete the first year of his entry-level contract. Presumably, the team won’t use that game in the playoffs, so he didn’t come to camp.
Training Camp has officially begun!! 😤#GoAvsGo https://t.co/F8gw9Q7Fq0
— Colorado Avalanche (@Avalanche) July 13, 2020
Most if not all of the players who were at camp were also at the informal practices. However, these are the official practices.
On the first day, they were getting used to working on official drills again.
Like guarding these guys isn't tough enough.#GoAvsGo https://t.co/xVHu7KCEsZ
— Colorado Avalanche (@Avalanche) July 13, 2020
Day 2 saw more of the same. The Avalanche players started out pretty loose:
Tip off to start Day 2!!
— Colorado Avalanche (@Avalanche) July 14, 2020
Game on!#GoAvsGo pic.twitter.com/GDLaE17gbs
However, they quickly got down to business.
Gettin' to work! 💪#GoAvsGo pic.twitter.com/mjtu5DtbBl
— Colorado Avalanche (@Avalanche) July 14, 2020
Day 3 occurred on Wednesday. The Avalanche worked on some drills — with props:
A little screen practice for our goaltenders.#GoAvsGo https://t.co/Cvntid9qov
— Colorado Avalanche (@Avalanche) July 15, 2020
Here’s Tyson Jost showing some passion:
Name the drill that caused Josty to break his stick, wrong answers only. #GoAvsGo pic.twitter.com/rM18ww2Aa8
— Colorado Avalanche (@Avalanche) July 15, 2020
He also played with both groups:
And hello again, Josty!#GoAvsGo pic.twitter.com/Kxj4SuOfDf
— Colorado Avalanche (@Avalanche) July 15, 2020
The players also worked on faceoffs:
And of course, gotta get some faceoff work in!#GoAvsGo https://t.co/t2rg7bcuIV
— Colorado Avalanche (@Avalanche) July 15, 2020
Day 4, Thursday, was the final day of the week, though they also practiced today, Saturday. The players participated in a scrimmage:
Burgundy vs White let's go!!#GoAvsGo pic.twitter.com/yUFA2LiKc1
— Colorado Avalanche (@Avalanche) July 16, 2020
The lines and pairings seemed pretty set:
Burakovsky-MacKinnon-Rantanen
Landeskog-Kadri-Nichushkin
Compher-Namestnikov-Donskoi
Nieto-Bellemare-Calvert
Graves-Makar
Girard-Johnson
Zadorov-Cole
Finally, you’ll see by the line combinations I just outlined that Tyson Jost didn’t make the 12-man roster. He’s presumably the 13th forward.
It's actually happening. 👀#GoAvsGo pic.twitter.com/EmcJQPUCNc
— Colorado Avalanche (@Avalanche) July 13, 2020
I have no words. Because if I start with even one word, I’ll go off on a rant on that maskless fiend in the top right corner (how dare he risk the players with his carelessness!) and you can already see how that would go. So, no words.
The team will report to Edmonton to practice and eventually play in what’s hopefully a fixed Rogers Place. They will play an exhibition game against the Minnesota Wild on July 29 before starting their round robin on August 2.