Long-awaited shot for Vladislav Kamenev leads to another

Vladislav Kamenev waited patiently.

The 23-year-old Russian has consistently been one of the first guys on the ice before practice, and always one of the last off. Whether it’s working with Shawn Allard on little things to improve his game, or helping Jussi Parkkila with his goalie drills, he’s done everything and more to be prepared for when the Avs needed him to step in.

“I have nothing to do but practice hard to get a chance to play and go in the lineup,” Kamenev told me after practice on Thursday.

Wednesday night, he got that chance, and his coach came away impressed.

“I thought he was pretty good, to be honest with you,” Jared Bednar said. “Skated pretty well, looked confident with the puck, he was in the right spots, and had a little bit of sturdiness to his game. I got to say, for the first game, it’s not easy just to jump right in there, but I thought he did a nice job last night.”

Kamenev credited his conditioning with being ready to go but admitted there may have been some rust to shake off early.

“First couple of shifts, I was not nervous, but hands were shaking,” Kamenev said. “But after that, I felt fine.”

Bednar has stressed in the past he would like to see Kamenev be more aggressive. At one point in the second period, Kamenev got the puck behind the Panthers net and took it straight to the net. That’s the type of aggressiveness his coach wants to see from him, and Kamenev, an intelligent hockey player, was quick to point out the situational awareness with that play.

“It was at the end of my shift so I was a little tired,” he told DNVR. “I just tried to put the puck at the net and maybe make a face-off in their zone.”

Spending the majority of his shifts with fellow countryman Valeri Nichushkin, he said they felt comfortable on the same line because they spend a lot of time together off the ice. Now he’s just hoping to get into more of a rhythm playing a few games in a row.

“You feel more confident when you play every game. I’m sure it will be better next game.”

With losses in three of their last four, the Avs will need everyone to be better against Dallas.

News and Notes from Practice

• Nikita Zadorov was absent from practice Bednar said he got dinged up last night. He blocked a shot on an early penalty kill with his foot and looked to be in discomfort, but played the rest of the game until he was ejected. Bednar said they’ll decide on their lineup at morning skate tomorrow.
• It didn’t appear as though Bednar will be tweaking the lines at all for Friday’s matchup against Dallas.
• Bednar said he felt like the Jost line was chasing the game a bit, didn’t have the puck enough, and that they need a bigger impact from them.
• All three of the Avs goals against Florida came from simple plays of throwing the puck to the net and crashing. Without Landeskog and Rantanen, there may have to be more of that, but Bednar said he would love for that to be the case all the time. “When you make plays like that, fancier plays open up.”
• No real update on Mikko Rantanen. They’re seeing how he does in the gym and how he progresses from there.
• It looks like Colin Wilson’s injury will stretch into the road trip, as he hasn’t skated after leaving the ice at practice on Tuesday.
• The Avs will call up a forward for the road trip. Bednar didn’t know exactly when it would happen, but they will bring one up for an extra body.