Center John Mitchell (head) and winger Jamie McGinn (back) did not participate in the on-ice activities at Friday’s Avalanche training camp. After the second scrimmage, coach Patrick Roy said both are day-to-day. Enforcer Patrick Bordeleau is also out, but he was spotted walking through the dressing room and looks fine. Still, Roy said Thursday he won’t play for approximately three months after off-season back surgery.
Some highlights from Day 1 of the two-day camp:
Blue beat Burgundy 4-3 in a shootout in the opening scrimmage. Captain Gabe Landeskog had the opening goal for Burgundy, against goalie Semyon Varlamov, but Varlamov stopped all three shots in the shootout to beat the Reto Berra-backed Burgundy. Ryan O’Reilly scored in the shootout on Berra, who went on to stop Matt Duchene and Zach Redmond. Landeskog, Joey Hishon and Alex Tanguay couldn’t get pucks past Varlamov.
Landeskog, O’Reilly, Max Talbot and Jan Hejda were full participants. Roy said Thursday they each had injuries. No worries with those guys.
Black beat Grey 4-1 in the second scrimmage. Black with play Blue on Saturday, with the Friday losers in the second game.
Defenseman Stefan Elliott has put on some muscle, particularly his guns. He’s on a two-day contract and the Avs are over-stocked with one-way D, but don’t count Elliott out this season when injuries set in. He began the second scrimmage paired with NHL veteran Brad Stuart, who makes skating look effortless. Stuart is really going to help this team, and Elliott might too.
Nathan MacKinnon centered Jarome Iginla and Andrew Agozzino in the second scrimmage. MacKinnon had a goal and Iginla hardly looks slow … Don’t worry, the 37-year-old still has the wheels. The big-league lines that Roy identified Thursday were not together Friday. Roy said Iginla would play RW with center Matt Duchene and LW Ryan O’Reilly. That threesome will be together in Sunday’s intrasquad scrimmage at DU, Roy said. Duchene centered O’Reilly and 18-year-old Conner Bleackley in Friday’s first scrimmage. Bleackley got lit up pretty good by defenseman Gabriel Beaupre but Roy said he was impressed with the 2014 first-round draft pick.
The line of Hishon between Alex Tanguay and Landeskog was very effective in the first scrimmage. We’ll have a story about those guys in Saturday’s paper and online.
Good crowd here. Good to see the fans flock to both sheets (although the shared Internet hinders my ability to get the word out).
