Avalanche Training Camp Observations: Scrimmages open door for competition

After two days of mostly systems installation work, the Avalanche got into some real competitive situations today with small-team scrimmages.

The two sessions ran as normal so the scrimmages weren’t too deep with each team only having a couple defensive pairings and lines each but it provided some of the younger guys real opportunities to shine against NHL competition.

As always, a few players stepped up and stood out. A few didn’t.

Today, we’re starting at the very top.

MacKinnon sets the tone

Nathan MacKinnon has long been demonstrative at practices in the past. I’ll never forget him firing a stick about 12 rows up in T-Mobile Arena last year during a morning skate. When he gets frustrated, he isn’t afraid to let it out.

He showed that again yesterday when a drill wasn’t going well and he slammed his stick on the ice and shouted some adult language at nobody in particular. He did it again today when his line wasn’t executing the way he expects it to.

There are two ways to look at this: your star player is so locked in on winning a Stanley Cup that he’s setting the tone for what he expects from himself and his teammates on a daily basis. If you’re a member of the Colorado Avalanche this season, you’re coming to work. Every. Single. Day.

The other way to look at it is that the notoriously combustible on-ice personality of MacKinnon is experiencing a blow-up a little bit earlier than normal and he needs to relax some. Getting this way at camp sets up for a very long year if he keeps humming along at this frequency.

The way I see it, it’s a lot more of number one than two because his teammates are responding to it. I’ve talked to several players and the way they’ve read it is “If a guy with that talent is going to work that hard, I have no excuses not to match the effort level.”

This is how a championship attitude is built.

Center of attention

There were a number of standouts today but the guys who caught my eye most frequently all came down the middle.

Pierre-Edouard Bellemare is just so solid at everything he does. I mean everything. He’s sticky defensively, he wins faceoffs, he’s heavy along the wall and has a disruptive stick in the neutral zone. It’s just camp but…I’m a fan early on.

Vladislav Kamenev was awesome today. He used his size well along the wall and was hard on pucks, digging them out against some pretty solid competition. What really stood out, though, was two shots in particular. One was a backhand that he whirled and fired that went up high and hit the post, the other a wrister that was a pure snipe during the scrimmage. A great day for 81.

Mentioned him yesterday but Nazem Kadri continues to be the catalyst of a second line that has found instant chemistry. They scored twice during the scrimmage and even though Tyson Jost appeared to get dinged up early on he came back and finished strong.

Shane Bowers really hasn’t been much of a story through the first two days of training camp after being a stud out in Anaheim during the Rookie Faceoff. That changed today during the scrimmage when he showed off that polished two-way game we keep raving about. He blasted one home on a one-timer that Pavel Francouz never had a chance to stop.

Young wings impress

The centers weren’t the only guys who I liked today.

Martin Kaut showed during scrimmages the skillset that is going to make him such an effective NHL player someday. He is the master of the all the little things: stick lifts, the extra pass, waiting the extra second for a passing lane to open, all of that.

I say this all the time but it bears repeating: Kaut isn’t a flashy player but when you watch him closely, you see he consistently finds ways to help his linemates. He made several nice plays today that I saw. He’ll need that to translate to the AHL if he wants to see a promotion this year.

Speaking of promotions, most of us had left A.J. Greer’s NHL career for dead after a disappointing summer that included an arrest in New York and Colorado acquiring enough forward depth where him finding a spot seemed very unlikely.

He just might be carving out that job, however. He’s been very good the last two days while playing alongside Bellemare and Colin Wilson’s lingering injury issues have opened the door for him to get looks with players he may not otherwise have gotten. So far, he’s taking advantage. As usual with Greer, however, we’ll see.

Byram-Rosen pairing shines again

I mentioned these two guys yesterday but wanted to follow-up and mention how strong they were again today.

A major emphasis from the coaching staff today was players firing passes at NHL speed. Nothing soft just to get the drill done. Bednar wanted crisp, hard passes tape to tape and both Rosen and Byram were able to do that with ease.

To be honest, they both look like NHL players right now. Rosen, 25, should be that way after playing huge minutes with the Toronto Marlies last year in the AHL but Byram’s polish has been damn impressive given he’s a teenager.

The longer Erik Johnson takes to get on the ice, the more these guys should get looks together.

Other notes

• Igor Shvyrev made a number of very nice plays, including helping setup a Luka Burzan goal during the scrimmage. He’s building off a strong showing in Anaheim.
• Pavel Francouz looks awesome. I don’t put much stock into training camp performances by goaltenders because very few game situations are involved but the man they call “Frankie” looks locked in already.
• Nikita Zadorov left the scrimmage and wasn’t seen again. Bednar didn’t have much of an update on him and said more would be known tomorrow.
• Valeri Nichushkin was on the ice for the first time today and him being two days behind really showed. He just got into town late Friday, did physical/medical testing Saturday, and was thrown into the fire today. He struggled but what else did you expect in that situation.