Morning skate notebook: Avs ready for Calgary's best punch

The Avalanche knows what’s coming. They remember how they felt playing Nashville the first time last year.

The sting of a playoff loss carries one through the summer. Instead of facing the team that eliminated them, Colorado is on the other side of the coin as they welcome in the Calgary Flames for their season-opening game.

“There’s gonna be some bad blood for sure,” Tyson Jost said. “Last year was such a great series between us in the playoffs. It’s just a heightened experience. It’s nice we’re starting off with them. It’s going to have that playoff kind of feel that we had last year.”

Instead of worrying about Calgary’s thirst for revenge, Colorado is embracing the challenge of having one of their two playoff opponents in their barn to start the season.

“I don’t think we could have picked a better opponent,” Jost said. “Calgary or San Jose. One of those two teams to start. We got one of them so it’s going to be fun.”

Jost opens up tonight in a new role as the left wing next to newcomers Nazem Kadri or Andre Burakovsky. He finished the playoffs playing as a center but the coaching staff wants to give Jost a shot in the top six.

“Kadri’s a really good player,” Jost said. “This summer, that’s been the rumor when talking with management, that I would play with Kadri. It’s exciting. He’s a really good player, a veteran guy. He’s very established in this league. I’m excited to play alongside him. He’s so skilled and so smart.”

The other aspect Kadri brings to Colorado’s lineup beyond just the skill a 30-goal scorer brings is the attitude he plays with.

“[Kadri] plays with an edge,” Jost said of his new center. “I really like that. I feel like I play better when I have a little bit of edge to my game, a little grit. It’s something we talked about this morning. ‘Let’s get a little gritty, a little edgy.’ I feel more involved in the game when that’s happening. I’m excited to play with [Kadri] for sure.”

Not to be forgotten is the other big acquisition this summer, Burakovsky, who is slated to open on the right side next to Jost and Kadri.

“Burakovsky’s a really good player”, Jost said. “He’s got a great shot and is very skilled. It’s a fun line to play on. It’s a great opportunity for me.”

It’s always easy to be optimistic on opening night but Colorado is basking in the glow of an offseason that has them as one of the NHL’s darlings coming into this season. Multiple people have picked them to make deep runs, including some Stanley Cup predictions.

If Colorado is going to fulfill those dreams, they will need major contributions from their newly-minted second line.

The road back to the postseason for the third straight year begins tonight.

LINEUP NOTES

The lineup should look something like this tonight:

Landeskog MacKinnon Rantanen
Jost Kadri Burakovsky
Nieto Compher Donskoi
Calvert Bellemare Nichushkin
Girard Johnson
Zadorov Makar
Graves Timmins
Grubauer

• Jared Bednar said keeping Conor Timmins was not a difficult choice and it was a unanimous decision between his staff and the front office. Timmins will make his NHL debut tonight.
• Cale Makar is also making his regular season debut tonight. He played 10 postseason games last year but has yet to play a game that actually counts in the standings.
• Colorado’s defense has three players with 36 combined NHL games played. Graves – 26 Makar – 10 Timmins – 0. For a team with Stanley Cup aspirations, that’s a rarity.
• Bednar mentioned Colin Wilson still isn’t quite where he needs to be in order to get back into the lineup and that combined with Nichushkin’s good preseason (Bednar’s assessment) made it an easier choice to put the new guy into the lineup tonight.
• Six players will be making their Avalanche debuts tonight – Kadri, Burakovsky, Donskoi, Bellemare, Nichushkin, Timmins.
• Kadri noted the lack of ‘white noise’ since getting to Denver. When asked about Toronto, Kadri responded “I’m going to miss the city of Toronto, but that white noise…it’s something I thought was normal. It definitely isn’t.”