When the Avs clinched the wild card spot in 2018 in the final game of the regular season with an empty netter, there were some big names on the ice.

Nathan MacKinnon. Gabriel Landeskog. Mikko Rantanen.

Another guy who was on the ice protecting the lead? Mark Barberio.

It’s easy to forget that Barberio, after being picked up on waivers during the lost year of 2016-17, played a vital depth role for the Avs the following season, averaging 17:17 of ice time a game, with over two minutes of that being on the penalty kill. He followed that up by playing in all six of the postseason games against Nashville.

So what went wrong last season, when he only managed to skate in 12 regular season games?

“It was a tough year for me personally,” Barberio said after practice on Wednesday. “It was just one of those years where I couldn’t catch a break. I was always trying to recover from an injury and always succumbing to another one. It was a pretty vicious cycle last year, but I think every season is its own story and for me, I’m just excited to get a chance to put last year behind me.”

The 29-year-old defenseman, who was told to be ready to play if called upon on Thursday against the Bruins, had a slow start to camp according to his head coach.

“When you get into 5 on 5 situations in practice, it just takes a while for games to slow down for guys, especially if they’re rusty,” Bednar said. “I kind of felt like he was a little rusty. I thought he got better as camp went on. Now that we’ve got into the regular season, it looks like practice and the reads are coming more natural for him, so I feel like it’s a time when he can come in and help us win hockey games.”

For a player whose whole life has been about playing hockey, not being able to play is tough mentally. Barberio touched on the mental aspect of dealing with last season.

“There’s a mental aspect to it,” Barberio said. “You don’t think that you’re going to get three separate injuries in one season and kind of derail your season that way. It was tough, but use the summer to forget about it and come back in top shape and come back healthy. Just ready, if I get the chance, to go out and prove I can do the job.”

We’ll see if Barberio gets that chance on Thursday.

News and Notes from Practice

• Ian Cole has been cleared, but there is no word on when he will enter the lineup again. Bednar said that he will evaluate how he looks in practice, coupled with how much contact he’s taken and how he feels, to determine when he will make his return. On Wednesday, Barberio was paired with Ryan Graves, perhaps indicating what may be the bottom pair on Thursday, but Bednar said nothing has been finalized.
• Nazem Kadri, Joonas Donskoi, Andre Burakovsky, and Pierre-Edouard Bellemare all skated on Wednesday after missing Monday’s practice.
• J.T. Compher, however, did not skate, and will not play for the Avs on Thursday against the Bruins. Bednar indicated it’s a lower-body injury that hasn’t gotten better as quickly as they had hoped, as he’s been off the ice for four days now.
• In Compher’s absence, Tyson Jost moved back to center and will skate with Matt Nieto and Colin Wilson, who will play his first game of the season. Burakovsky, Kadri, and Donskoi made up the second line.