Avalanche Using Week to Rest Up and Stay Sharp

The Colorado Avalanche is a quarter of the way to its ultimate goal, but there is more work ahead for the club if it wants to capture the franchise's third Stanley Cup. This week is all about preparing for the team's next challenge.
Colorado is now waiting to find out which opponent it will face in the second round after taking care of business and defeating the St. Louis Blues in four games in its postseason's opener, completing the sweep with a 5-2 victory on Sunday.
"I mean always in playoffs rest is a weapon, so it was good. That was something that was kind of important to us, was to get that fourth game," said forward Tyson Jost. "You never want to give a team life in any series, so it was nice to close it out and now we can focus and look forward to the next series here and recover and get some rest."

The Avalanche will play the winner of the Minnesota Wild-Vegas Golden Knights series, which is going to a sixth contest after Minnesota won 4-2 in Game 5 on Monday night in Las Vegas. The Knights lead the best-of-seven set 3-2, and their next matchup is set for Wednesday.
A schedule for Round 2 has yet to be announced, but it could possibly begin as early as this weekend. With at least four days between contests, the Avalanche is approaching this week much like it did prior to the first round and throughout the regular season, keeping the routine of skating at least every other day while also adding in a few full-team practices to work on some details of its game.
Colorado had a full day off on Monday and held an optional practice on Tuesday at Ball Arena. Head coach Jared Bednar said the team will have a mandatory team session on Wednesday before reassessing for the rest of the week.
"I think we're going to make sure that our guys get some work in," Bednar said. "It doesn't have to be heavy lifting and a grind like a game will be, but keeping guys on the ice, making sure they're rested and recovered and also still feeling good about their game and their puck touches, and the way they feel on the ice is important.
"Definitely have to have a couple good days of practice, get in some meetings that we have to cover, and breaking down our opponents--getting ready for both of them and making sure we're prepared as much as we possibly can for the start of the series."
A key for the Avalanche this week is to rest up and recover from any minor ailments sustained in the first series against the rival Blues but also to stay sharp, as they'll face a formidable opponent in the next round that will be coming in with momentum.
"We don't know when we're going to be playing next here, and regardless of how many games that series goes to we have to be ready come puck drop for that next round," said defenseman Cale Makar. "Whatever guys need to do now, whether it's getting on the ice or not, or making sure their bodies are recovered is important, but come that [second] round we need to make sure we're ready and not having too much time off where we're getting out of that winning mindset."

RETURN TO THE ICE

Head coach Jared Bednar said the team's players--active or black aces--that didn't play on Sunday skated on Tuesday, but only a select few of the regulars participated in the team's official optional session.
"We'll be in two groups tomorrow because we got a lot of guys here now. I think I got our number at 38 guys on the ice, so we're just making sure they get their work," Bednar said. "Goalies go out today, some of the guys that played the other night will be out early tomorrow, get some work in, get some specialty work and then they'll join practice. Obviously, the guys that haven't been in our lineup will get extra work and make sure that they're ready to come in and help us to win hockey games."
The five regulars that skated with skills coach Shawn Allard and goaltending coach Jussi Parkkila were defensemen Samuel Girard and Conor Timmins, forward Alex Newhook and goaltenders Devan Dubnyk and Jonas Johansson.
Newhook wasn't able to finish Game 4 on Sunday after a collision into the boards, but Bednar said the rookie should be ready to go for the start of the next series. Pierre-Edouard Bellemare also got banged up on Sunday, and while he didn't skate on Tuesday, the veteran forward's status is also positive.
"[Bellemare] is in here this morning. He left [on Sunday], he took a shot, so he's a little sore," Bednar said. "He's one of those guys that I'm talking about that is dinged up, but I'm expecting both of them being able to play for us."

ONE TIMERS

Head coach Jared Bednar on preparing for the next opponent: "We're doing our homework on the opponents that are still playing, and we will dig in a little bit further as the week goes but we'll brush up on everything. We'll get back into our 5-on-5 play, touch up some things. Most of our learning this year has been on video, we have not had any practices really that have been mandatory just because of the schedule… It's sort of been a playoff schedule all year for us, so guys see what they need to see, we go over it. We'll have the luxury of getting some reps in a lot of those areas here over the next few days. But the guys have done a nice job of taking what we're giving them for information and then applying it to games, and same thing with the St. Louis series. There were things we didn't like in Game 1 that we corrected in Game 2. Some things popped up in Game 3 that we didn't like that we corrected in Game 4. As long as these guys can keep implementing what we're showing them and improving in the areas just off of video and the teaching and getting that understanding and implementing it into their game, that is what we're looking for. It shouldn't take a lot of reps on the ice to do that."
Defenseman Cale Makar on watching the other series in the playoffs: "I've been watching basically every other series and stuff, I watched almost every game yesterday. Obviously sometimes we're playing, so it overlaps, but I just enjoy watching hockey. It's not so much to analyze their play, and we obviously don't know who we're playing yet, but I just enjoy watching it. So I try to get as much in as I can."
Forward Tyson Jost on areas the Avs can improve on for the second round: "I think there's a couple things. I think it definitely depends too on what team we're playing. Obviously, we're going to wait for that series to be over, but I think a lot of our game plan and certain stuff that we need to touch up and whatnot is going to depend a lot on who we're playing. I'm sure the coaches will put together an awesome game plan like they did for the St. Louis series, and us players, I know we're looking forward to it. We're chomping at the bit to get ready here for the second round."