Back at full health, Avs forwards are ready to roll

October 21.

That was the last time the Avs were able to roll out their full collection of forwards in a lineup. That was nearly two months ago.

On Wednesday night, it looks like they’ll finally get that opportunity again.

Nazem Kadri, who had missed the previous three games due to a lower-body injury, practiced in a regular jersey on Tuesday afternoon and proclaimed himself good to go.

“It was a previous thing,” Kadri said after practice. “I just kind of tweaked it again in the Toronto game and woke up the next day and just didn’t really feel that great. Obviously, at this point in the season, it’s better to take some rest days and fully heal, because down the stretch, that’s when you want to be playing your game.”

With Kadri back, the Avs look to be ready to roll out the same forward corps they had on opening night against Calgary almost two months ago.

“It’s exciting, for sure,” said Kadri. “It seems like throughout the whole first part of the year, it’s almost like one guy in, one guy out, one guy in, two guys out. A little bit frustrating to play like that but we’ve been doing well, and now we get a little taste of our full lineup.”

Kadri was back on a line with Joonas Donskoi and Andre Burakovsky, the same wingers he was having success with before the injuries started to hit. Now the Avs are just excited to see what their forward group can do together.

“Any time, regardless of where you’re at in the standings, you always want to have all your players available to you,” Jared Bednar said after practice. “It would be nice to have everyone back together and let us start growing as a group.”

NEWS AND NOTES FROM PRACTICE

• Cale Makar skated on his own for around 40 minutes before practice, doing mostly skating and stick handling work. With an upper-body injury, they wanted him to get on the ice today, and they’ll continue to re-evaluate him every 24 hours. He is doubtful for Wednesday’s game.
• Philipp Grubauer also practiced regularly, but the coaching staff will wait to see how he feels tomorrow and decide who will play against the Flyers.
• I asked Nikita Zadorov after practice how long he has to wear the shield for his jaw, and it sounds like he’s stuck with it until at least the start of the new year.
• It was a high energy practice for the Avs, but a shorter one, as it lasted only around 35 minutes. Bednar said he wanted to focus on different details in their game, such as the breakout, forwards responsibilities on rush coverage, and defensive gaps. He said they didn’t want to blow the Calgary game out of proportion, however, as it was a game coming off a really good road trip and they looked a little mentally and physically tired.
• Erik Johnson did not skate today, but Jared Bednar mentioned on Altitude 950 this morning that he should start skating again this week.
• Broncos star running back Phillip Lindsay took in the Avs practice this morning.