This is a combined morning skate report, and locker-room audio piece.

First, from the skate: No Tyson Barrie tonight, no Mark Barberio (upper body). Mark Alt will be in the lineup when the Avs try to beat the St. Louis Blues at the Pepsi Center. Semyon Varlamov in goal. No changes to the forward lines from last game.

Another thing: Conor Timmins is still skating (he did today) and I hear that there is internal optimism he could be back playing by January. Let’s hope anyway. The kid hasn’t played since March.

A win puts them in first place in the Western Conference. I talked some with Ian Cole about how the team’s mindset is about that potential accomplishment.

As I’ve said before, Cole has become a go-to guy in the room for us media, because he says such intelligent stuff and seems to like to engage with us.

Also included in the audio is Jared Bednar’s morning meeting with the media.

Click on the play button to listen:

Ian Cole:

Jared Bednar: