Morning skate notebook: Kerfoot OK, Zadorov scratched again

A quick notebook here, a day after the Avalanche’s Velvet Elvis-level ugly performance in Las Vegas. First off, Alexander Kerfoot is OK after a high hit taken from Vegas’s Brayden McNabb. He’ll be in the lineup against Chicago tonight at the Pepsi Center (7 p.m.).

Gabriel Bourque, however, will not play because of injury. With the Avs only having 12 forwards as it was, the team recalled forwards Rocco Grimaldi and Andrew Agozzino from San Antonio. Grimaldi will play tonight, but Agozzino will be a scratch.

Here’s the other significant news: Nikita Zadorov will be a healthy scratch for a second straight game. So, this is no longer a thing where Jared Bednar just gave him one game off to think about his play and come right back to hopefully be better. He’s essentially lost his top-6 job for now. Andrei Mironov will play his second game of the season tonight, while Chris Bigras will be the other healthy scratch on D.

It’s pretty shocking, actually, that Zadorov has played his way into the doghouse so soon. I mean, I didn’t think he was terrible in the Dallas game, but clearly Bednar saw something he didn’t like and is making him pay now.

Jonathan Bernier will start in goal.

Here is Bednar’s talk after the optional skate, via Coloradoavalanche.com