NEW YORK – The puck drops on the Avs’ 2017-18 season here about 4 1/2 hours from now, and BSN Denver will be there to bring you the scene.

You have your forward lines from earlier in the day. As we said, Carl Soderberg will be a healthy scratch. I’m sure we’ll discuss that more as time goes on, but Jared Bednar has clearly shown he’s not playing favorites or coaching by the size of a guy’s contract.

Also a healthy scratch tonight: Nikita Zadorov. That’s right, the big Russian just was deemed not ready to play in the opener.

“He’s got some catching up to do,” coach Jared Bednar said.

Ouch. That’s nearly $7 million in salary between Soderberg and Zadorov, not in uniform. I suspect Big Z will play at least one game on this trip, but it won’t happen tonight.

Chris Bigras will be paired with Andrei Mironov, while Erik Johnson will skate with Mark Barberio. Tyson Barrie will skate with Patrik Nemeth, the waiver-wire pickup from Dallas.

Am I surprised Zadorov is out and a guy like Nemeth is in? Yeah, I guess, some anyway. But this is the price you pay for missing several days of training camp.

Semyon Varlamov is in goal, against Henrik Lundqvist.

By the way, it’s “Alexander” Kerfoot, not Alex.

“That’s what my mom prefers to call me, so…,” Kerfoot said. “I don’t really care, but she’s pretty picky.”

Kerfoot’s parents will spend the next few days out east, watching his first three games.

Matt Duchene talked some today. For nearly three minutes, in fact. But, as he said before we gathered around him, “anything other than the game, I’m not going to talk about.”

But he seemed in good spirits and ready to go.

Here’s the video: