Avalanche Practice Notebook: Optional roster changes

Ok, we’ve had our week of doom and gloom. A week where everybody feels down on what this Colorado Avalanche group is truly capable of. And if you go based on Avalanche forward Mikko Rantanen’s comments, the players don’t feel particularly great about how they’re playing either.

So how do you fix it? How do you get out of the funk that is plaguing this team’s performance, and gets back on track and get this season going in the right direction? Using the old cliche, you have to get back to the basics, and that’s exactly what the Avs did today.

It was just an optional skate today, so not a ton of formality to much of what was going on on the ice, but everywhere you looked you saw guys working on perfecting the small things that have really added up for Colorado during their slow start. Board battles, net-front battles, making crisp and clean passes, getting pucks through bodies. Guys were loose, having fun, and working hard. All things you want to see out of a team that is very clearly underperforming.

Now with all of that said, guys working hard and smiling definitely wasn’t the story of today’s optimal skate. Cale Makar was back on the ice in a red non-contact jersey. But honestly, he seemed very comfortable taking contact. He put in a lot of work on board battles. Going up against guys like Eric Johnson, Curtis MacDermid, and Bowen Byram – Cale Makar was focusing on being able to wear contact while still maintaining possession of the puck and escaping in order to make a play. This should instill some confidence in the fact that head coach Jared Bednar said the former Calder Trophy winner is an option to play on Thursday when the Vancouver Canucks come to town.

The other notable bit of potential good news was Valeri Nichushkin skating in normal jersey and, to my eye, doing everything at full speed really for the first time since his very early-season injury. Nichushkin spent a lot of his time today working with Avalanche skills coach Shawn Allard, making sure he’s ready to perform at game speed. He is also an option to play on Thursday, according to Bednar. 

Getting Makar and Nichushkin back would be nothing if not a huge confidence booster for an Avalanche team that desperately needs one right now. It would mark the first time this season that the Avs would have what you would call a fully healthy roster for a game (at least as far as skaters go).

The last bit of news today from practice is that after an extended look to begin the season, Sampo Ranta has been reassigned to the Colorado Eagles. It was definitely not the start Ranata wanted after what was, in my opinion, a promising few games during last season’s playoffs. He just looked like he had lost some confidence in himself and was trying to do things that aren’t normally part of his game. Some time with the Eagles could be really good for him in terms of getting back some of that swag back.

Alex Newhook, who has 11 points in 10 AHL games this season, is the obvious name that comes to mind as we anticipate a call-up to take Sampo’s place, but we’ll wait to see who the Avs called up to take his place as there are several candidates beyond Newhook.