The Good, the Bad and the Ugly covering the Avalanche Rookie Showcase and the World Cup of Hockey

Welcome to a new season of hockey! As summer fades, action on the ice heats ups with the Colorado Avalanche hosting their inaugural Rookie Showcase and the World Cup of Hockey launching into some exciting competition. Below, the highlights and lowlights from both for the past week.

THE GOOD

1. High fives all around to the Colorado Avalanche for hosting their first Rookie Showcase. What an incredible opportunity for the fans to get a glimpse of the prospect pool and watch the developing talent perform in game situations. The venue was comfortable, concessions reasonably priced and watching both the players and the team staffs up close and personal generated a lot of excitement.

2. The Showcase also afforded the chance to see Mike Ricci, Adam Foote, Joe Sakic, Craig Billington, Evgeni Nabokov, Jared Bednar and Peter McNab walking around with the rest of the crowd. That, and nachos at the concession stand. Who could ask for more?

3. The Avalanche won both games; the young Avs defeated the San Jose Sharks 4-1 on Saturday and overcame a one-goal deficit to beat the Anaheim Duck 3-2 on Sunday.

4. Mikko Rantanen, Chris Bigras and Nikita Zadorov are making good cases for joining the Avalanche full time this year. Obviously, a lot depends on their performance during training camp with the veteran players. But those three definitely stood out.

5. Of those without previous NHL experience, forwards J.T. Compher, A.J. Greer, J.C Beaudin, and Troy Bourke should all gain some attention. Defenders Nicolas Meloche and Mason Geertsen showed significant improvement as well and likely earned some consideration for future options. Spencer Martin looks ready to compete for the starting goaltending job in San Antonio while Chase Marchand should have a contract from somebody with his quality effort.

6. The remaining prospect pool all look worthy of development, marking significant improvement for the organization’s depth. The Avalanche and their fans have reasons for optimism.

7. The World Cup of Hockey proved to offer some great competition so far. If anyone was wondering whether the games would merely be a glorified practice skate, the preliminary Canada vs. United States matchup should have put an end to the speculation. The skaters play with intensity and appear to be in regular season form.

8. Monday night’s Russia vs. Team North America game proved as exciting as any playoff match. Nathan MacKinnon played an outstanding game, sparking the comeback for North America, screening the goalie and getting scrappy in front of the net. With the team down in the second period, MacKinnon managed to draw two penalties and challenged nearly every play around the Russian net. The Avalanche are hoping he brings that level of intensity to the start of the NHL season.

9. Gabriel Landeskog and Carl Soderberg are playing some good hockey for Sweden. They play with chemistry on a line together with Landeskog scoring the first goal in the team’s win over Russia in a hotly contested match.

10. Matt Duchene has been playing some quality hockey along with Canadian linemates Joe Thornton and former Avalanche center Ryan O’Reilly. Erik Johnson has played well on a USA team desperately needing a win against Canada Tuesday night.

THE BAD

1. During the Rookie Showcase, Rantanen injured his ankle and will be out 2-4 weeks. For a young guy trying to anchor a spot with the big club, that’s disheartening.

2. Travis Barron and Jackson Houck both suffered injuries during Sunday’s game. Hopefully, the damage was minor but that’s certainly part of the risk in playing competitive matchups with other prospects also vying for the attention of their respective clubs.

3. The World Cup of Hockey’s USA team needs to devise a better game plan. Their play looks eerily familiar to some of the poorer Avalanche games from last year. More like the losing streak at the end of the season Avalanche, not the January team pushing for the playoff. Team USA could learn from the kids on Team NA.

THE UGLY

1. NCAA regulations essentially prevent college hockey players from participating in their clubs’ NHL training camps. Considering the purpose of college is to develop and educate students to excel, the constraints on their participation in free camps that would further develop their hockey skills seems contrary to propelling their students to success.

Since the schools financially benefit from tournaments like the Frozen Four, where their hockey players compete for the national title, how are those restrictions on NHL training camp not ugly?

2. ESPN rolled directly into a poker tournament after the exhilarating North America vs. Russia World Cup game. ‘Nuff said.

THOUGHTS TO PONDER

None of the Avalanche skaters play on the top two lines of their respective teams in the World Cup of Hockey. Goaltender Semyon Varlamov is the backup goaltender for Russia, Duchene plays mostly on the fourth line for a very talented Canadian team, Swedes Landeskog and Soderberg are getting third line minutes, Erik Johnson has been on the third defensive pairing for USA and MacKinnon has been slotted mostly on the third line for North America.

While the Avalanche seem to have lots of solid players, none of them seem to have earned a top spot on the World Cup teams. Can the Avalanche make the playoffs without a premier level star? Or will the players be able to find another level of play with a new system and coach? Something to consider….

WHAT TO WATCH

1. World Cup of Hockey continues with teams facing potential elimination from the contest. Tuesday features some exciting matchups as Canada and the USA will meet in one of the more combative contests of the tournament while Sweden will face off against Finland after Olli Maatta publicly guaranteed a victory for Finland.

2. Avalanche veterans report for physicals Thursday and will start skating Friday for their brief training camp. Most of the prospects playing in the Rookie Showcase will be attending the training camp as well. Dates and times will be posted shortly.

3. The Colorado Avalanche’s annual Burgundy & White game plays out this Sunday, September 25 at 3 pm at the University of Denver’s Magness Arena.