COLORADO SPRINGS — Thursday served as a friendly, heavy-handed reminder to the Avalanche that it’s time to gear up and stop thinking preseason. The season opener is less than a week away, and the Los Angeles Kings, the defending Stanley Cup champions, are the only opponent until then.
Team systems need to be understood and executed, no excuses, and chemistry must be forged. It’s October, and for an NHL team that remained winless in the preseason after a 2-1 shootout loss Thursday night, the clock is ticking fast toward next Thursday’s season opener at Minnesota.
The Avs, minus four injured forwards, played the Kings at the World Arena, and a rematch with the champs is set for Saturday in Las Vegas.
“It should be a good test for us, to finally solidify some chemistry and get off on the right foot for the regular season,” Avs defenseman Erik Johnson said before Thursday’s game on the World Arena’s Olympic-sized ice surface. “Special teams, D-zone coverage and forecheck are obviously so important. If you’re going to solidify your PP (power play) and your PK (penalty killing), you’re going to win a lot of hockey games.
“Those are the toughest things to build upon.”
Colorado is without forwards John Mitchell (migraines), Jamie McGinn (back) and Jesse Winchester (concussion). Jarome Iginla (ankle) sat out Thursday for precautionary reasons. The injuries have given prospects Andrew Agozzino, Dennis Everberg and Borna Rendulic an opportunity to make the team out of camp but added urgency to find collective chemistry.
“With the lineup being as close to opening night as we can get, I think it’s certainly important that we get systems to where we want them to be,” said Gabe Landeskog, Avs left wing and team captain. “We want the details — our backtracking, forecheck, neutral-zone forechecking — as near as perfect as possible. I feel like we’ve been lacking in that. The effort has been there, but the details as far as positioning of chips into the zone, entries, offensive plays and stuff, they haven’t been as good as we want it to be.”
Avs coach Patrick Roy played center Matt Duchene with regular left wing Ryan O’Reilly on Thursday, then with Alex Tanguay at right wing. Second-line center Nathan MacKinnon was between Landeskog and right wing Daniel Briere, who was moved up from the third line to replace Iginla.
Max Talbot scored for the Avalanche in the first period after Tyler Toffoli struck for the Kings. Talbot’s wrist shot from between the circles came on the power play, and against two-time Stanley Cup-winning goalie Jonathan Quick, who gave way to backup Martin Jones to begin the third period.
Backup goalie Reto Berra started for the Avs and was excellent in his third consecutive strong performance. He stopped 43 shots in regulation and overtime, showing superb positioning and poise. In his two previous preseason starts, Berra lost 3-2 in overtime at Montreal and 2-0 (empty-net goal) at Calgary. Starter Semyon Varlamov is scheduled to start Saturday.
Mike Chambers: mchambers@denverpost.com or
