Avalanche Returns to Family Sports Ahead of Contest vs. Knights

CENTENNIAL, Colo.--The Colorado Avalanche has touched back down in Denver after a three-game road trip on the East Coast.
The club took the ice at Family Sports Center on Monday after an off day Sunday ahead of its matchup against the Vegas Golden Knights on Tuesday evening.
Defenseman Samuel Girard was not on the ice after taking a hit late in overtime against the Tampa Bay Lightning on Saturday, though head coach Jared Bednar did not rule him out for Tuesday's contest.

"He's sore from the other night from the hit that he took in overtime, so maintenance day. We'll see what it feels like tomorrow," Bednar said of Girard.

Devon Towes, who has been skating in a non-contact jersey since the beginning of the season, was not on the ice either for practice as he was with the doctors and was cleared for controlled contact.
"He'll take controlled contact for a week--I'm guessing--depending on how he feels. Now it will be on his confidence in it", Bednar said after practice. "He's been feeling good, he's strong. He'll get controlled contact, we'll move him into a full-contact jersey at some point and like I said, once we kind of get to this point, he'll definitely be doing controlled contact for a little bit--days if not a week. And then after that, he'll get into some contact and if he feels good then he'll be getting ready to play."
There were 11 forwards on the ice for practice as Tyson Jost also had a maintenance day and Mikhail Malstev was reassigned to the Avs American Hockey League affiliate the Colorado Eagles on Sunday.
Bednar reported that more roster moves may be coming, but likely not until the team is preparing to hit the road again on Wednesday.
"We're at home and it'll depend on some of the reports we get out of the training room today on those guys," said Bednar. "Then, generally though when we do go on the road, you got to make sure you got an extra body or two there in case something happens or in case someone's not at 100 percent and you want to make a lineup change. So, I don't know about for tomorrow night, but I would assume in the next few days we will probably recall somebody."

OTHER INJURY NEWS

Valeri Nichushkin skated with skills coach Shawn Allard during practice as a part of his rehab-conditioning. He played in the season opener against the Chicago Blackhawks but has been out since then with an upper-body injury.
Additionally, Pavel Francouz took the ice for the first time before practice as he has been sidelined for three-to-four weeks after suffering a lower-body ailment in a preseason contest on Oct. 5.
"I mean both guys are on the ice, which is a positive sign, and doing a lot of work off the ice as well," said Bednar. "So, Val I'd say is still week-to-week not day-to-day. And Frankie, same thing. They're making good progress, but they still got a little ways to go.."
Bowen Byram his comfort level this year: "I think last year when I played my games, I was still pretty nervous and tentative and this year I feel a lot more comfortable on the ice, no matter who's out there. I remember last year if I was out against a big-name guy I'd be like,' Oh, jeez, look who's out here,' but this year I feel a lot more comfortable in that regard."

Jared Bednar on facing the Knights: "They're going through a little bit of some of the stuff that we're going through with guys out of the lineup. The margin for error in winning hockey games becomes narrower, and I watched them play last night and I mean they played hard, they played well and it's a bounce one way or the other and they could have won that hockey game. They still got a lot of really good players, it's a really good team, it's a deep team. You know, we have to continue to build on what we did in Tampa. It was a good game from us, it was a really good game from us. They'll be a hungry team for sure, they are not where they want to be so far at the start of the year and neither we so we will be fighting for two points tomorrow night.