Recapping the Colorado Avalanche preseason after final game loss to Dallas Stars | DNVR Avalanche

Recapping the Colorado Avalanche preseason after final game loss to Dallas Stars | DNVR Avalanche

Preseason’s finally over. [Music] [Applause] [Music] Welcome in to DNDR Avalanche postgame show live from the Toyota Lounge. Technically a losers lounge, but let’s be honest. We’re going to talk the full preseason, not just that game. Powered by your Front Range Toyota dealerships and presented by Bet 365. We’ve got Rudo and AJ coming to you live. Does this is the preseason over? Does this count as preseason over or is the preseason not over until Tuesday when the puck drops? Are you are you about to watch another preseason game before Tuesday? Absolutely. Then the preseason is over. Okay. I’ve watched some junior regular season games probably, but that’s not preseason. Doesn’t count. Yeah. All right. Preseason’s over then. We’re We’re calling it here. You You watch those for a reason, though. Yeah. True. Like you’re not just casually pulling up some random OHL game and being like, “All right, well, let’s just fire it up, I guess.” Yeah. I’m watching Christian Humphre or Yeah, get targeted. Yeah, for sure. Yeah, absolutely. Fair enough. Uh ABS do drop this one three to2. We’ll talk a little bit about portions of the game. There’s a couple of things I want to mention, but the game on the whole was the ABS B squad versus Dallas’s A squad. There’s not really a ton to take out of this mechanically. It’s not your usual last game of the preseason where you see most of an NHL roster on both sides. That was kind of game five of the preseason for the ABS this year. Yeah. Yeah. They really did not um they did not send a competitive team. Yep. I’m not entirely sure what the thinking was there. I’m assuming they talked to the vets and they were like, “Do you guys want to fly to Dallas?” And they were like, “Probably never again, honestly. We could just avoid that city forever.” Yeah. And they were like, “Tristan Yen, how do you feel about flying to Dallas?” And he was like, “I love Dallas. Dallas sounds great. give me every opportunity under the sun. He did score. I’m assuming that Mus did a thing. I would assume so as well, but I can’t tell. Uh you have this game that look while I say it for the most part doesn’t matter. It is worth noting the ABS did throw all of the unknown and or injured guys into this game. Sam Gerard played in it. Uh Matt Steinberg played in it, so he’s doing just fine as well. Taylor Macar played in it. I don’t know that I have any big takeaways from those guys necessarily, but it is worth noting down, hey, most of these dudes on the injured list are fine. They played in the game, except for Shawn Barren, who was fine before and left this game injured, so the ABS just can’t escape it when it comes to playing Dallas, I guess. Yeah. And especially with Barons, like that’s something that you’re you don’t love. It’s becoming a recurring problem. Not that I have no idea what the injury is, but having missed all of last season, you absolutely hate to see that guy get hurt again. Yeah. Honestly, like it doesn’t matter what the injury is for him, you know? You’re just like you don’t want that. Like that’s the last thing in the world that you’re hoping. We always say in the preseason, you get out healthy and that’s the whole goal. And for Barren to get hurt in the last preseason game after everything, it’s like, come on. Yeah, it it felt like you were that close to getting them into the regular season and going with the Eagles, no doubt. But still, uh, for the parts of the game that are worth talking about, number one, I already see it in chat, which by the way, shout out Dean for becoming a Hall of Fame supporters club member. Great time to become a supporters club member for us here. It’s our YouTube membership program where you get access to behind the scenes videos here on YouTube. But maybe more importantly, you get access to emojis. So, when we’re doing watch alongs all season long for AS games, you can uh you can spam the Dr. Dubs or you can spam whatever other emojis we end up getting in there. The more of you that sign up, the more emojis we get. So, jump in, support us, get some cool emojis. Wins for everybody on the supporters club here at DNBR. Uh Tristan Nielsen Tristan Nielsen scores his fourth goal of the preseason. helps the ABS break the power play drought that I wanted to meme for longer but unfortunately no longer get to because he scored. Yeah. Again, we talked about him early in the preseason. This is not a guy fighting for an NHL job, but this is a guy fighting for a job. Yeah. And he’s four years in the AHL. like he’s on he’s on a minor league deal. Like you’re he’s done fine. Like you really can’t complain. He’s he plays really hard. Uh he has a little bit of offensive punch and he skates the way that the Avalanche like guys to skate. So you see why he appeals to the Avalanche, but he’s Colorado Eagle. Yep. Pretty straightforward on that one. Um, I I don’t know that there’s a lot to talk about for the majority of this forward core outside of about three or four guys that I want to get to, but let me let me hold off on them for a little bit before we jump into them. the other guy that played into this game or that played in this game that I think I don’t I I don’t know that you can take a ton out of preseason and we’ve talked about giving him a lot of leash because Sam Molinski is playing on the left side. He’s learning something new. He’s learning that adjustment. But I think on the whole nobody should feel comfortable with what they saw out of Saminsky on the left side throughout the preseason. And now you have a guy behind him that the ABS might be more willing to play once his visa stuff gets all worked out. So is there a little bit of a clock on Molinsky now we’re now that we’re at the end of preseason here? Yeah, I mean now you have to start to produce, right? And you have to play. Uh when it was Katon Middleton, it was less pressure because you knew what he was and more importantly you knew what he wasn’t. But with Salovio in in tow shiny new toy syndrome, right? Yeah. like you’re you’re looking at at the new guy going, “Okay, well, he’s big. He’s he’s got decent feet. He’s got okay hands. He makes a good first pass. He’s nice and safe. He can play left and right side. Like, he’s very comfortable back there. One thing, he got 15 NHL games to his name.” Yep. It’s true. It’s not a lot. It’s not like Molinsky has a bunch, though. He’s about to hit a hundred at the start of the year. Yeah, but when you compare it to Yeah, 15 games for the new guy. I mean, yeah, but but there’s also a that’s that’s really it. There is a grand total of zero NHL games on the left side for Molinsky to be fair. So, and and I get that’s not Yeah, I mean he did play a little bit of it last year. Sort of. It wasn’t Yeah. I mean, he it wasn’t like he lined up at the beginning of of the game and and played there all game, right? That’s not what it was. He he would take shifts there. Yeah. It looked a lot like what it’s looked like so far. I think that’s fair. And this was not a not a night where Molinsky was getting any help on his deep pairing either. This was no four AHL defenseman and Sam Gerard who was very clearly rusty but did play. Yeah, I mean Sam Owens keeping 31 minutes in this game. Believable. Seems a little unnecessary, but okay. They said, “All right, Sam, we’re going to give you as many minutes on that left side as we can in this preseason before it ends.” The the funny part of it is he played 3103 27 shifts. Sam Gerard played 28 shifts 2249. I mean to be fair that entire first period the ABS basically spent it circling their own zone. So he didn’t get to change too too freely. For the record your audio sounds fine to me. Yeah. I mean, I have a new microphone that this is the first day that I’m using. So, yep. I’m just guessing. I really have no idea. Yeah, there’s a there’s a very real possibility that Molinsky’s TOI tonight will be his TOI through two games combined in the regular season. So, yeah, I mean, it would take like a three or four overtime game for him to get that. Yeah. in one game again this year. Maybe more. Like maybe more than that. Yeah. Yeah. Well, because they’re gonna they’re going to try and see how much Kale Mar can take before he dies. That’ll be 50 minutes of ice time, right? That is the strategy they tend to go with. Yeah. I I do think it’s worth noting. I again, it’s preseason. Don’t read too much into it, but you were hoping for Molinsky to see a upward trajectory on that left side of all right, it’s it’s going to be a work in progress, but it’s moving in the right direction. And I don’t know that I’ve seen enough upward movement to feel good about it going into the season. Yeah. So, is what it is on that front. Uh when you look at uh let me ask it to you this way. Uh who is going to be the final cut? Do you think there’s some guys that are obviously slated to go to the Eagles that played today, but who do you think is the final cut? Um I mean with the defenseman being claimed, I think we can go ahead and cut all the defenders, right? No more Baronss, no more Amat, no more Aan, no more Kanye. Those guys all got to go. Agree. Um, so I think that’s easy. Uh, and then you roll with eight um with uh Molinsky, Slovio, and uh Middleton as as your 678. Okay. And then because of that, extra forward. Yeah. Yeah. You’re you’re putting LOC on uh IR. Yep. and just regular IR not LTIR because you don’t want to utilize you don’t want to do that unless you have to. You can always do it retroactively if for whatever reason you need it but for right now they don’t need to. They want to acrewue. Okay. Um so I think you keep him obviously um BICOV is obviously on the roster and uh I’ve just for my money I would have Gavin Brinley as the 13th forward. But I will I will understand if it’s Matt Steinberg. As I have said all summer long, Matt Steinberg is the guy that you don’t feel pressured to play. He can just sit and be your scratch every night and then if you want somebody crazy to go in there who’s willing to mix it up. He plays on the penalty kill like he doesn’t have any puck skill so he’s not going to do anything for you offensively. You’ll we’ll just see, right? Yep. We’ll just see with what’s with what Steinberg can do. But with Bindley, you want him in games. So, if you’re not planning to play him, sending him to the AHL, I think, is the smartest thing to do. But if you do want to, and we’ve talked about this all preseason, if you want to reward him for playing as well as he has this preseason, giving him the first couple of games, putting him in the lineup, and saying, “This is your taste of the NHL action. Now you got to go back to the AHL and fight your way back.” Makes sense. Yeah. I I I think that makes sense running 13. Well, it’s Oliffson or Kibby Ron or whoever is a 13th forward. I don’t care. Whatever. Uh my question though is it’s not really a question. It’s more of a statement. If they decide to have Olison in the lineup opening night over Brinley, is there a world where they just run 12 forwards? You keep it in a way where you don’t have to IR Mc Mackenzie Blackwood then you can keep him on the regular roster depending on how healthy he is or is not. Yeah, I think that the Blackwood question is I would probably just put him on IR to start. Okay. Just don’t mess with it. Um, yeah. And I’m, you know, I’m I only say that because there is a 10-day minimum requirement if you do get put on IR. So, yeah. All right. I won’t argue with you on it. Sorry. I’m looking at their I’m looking at their schedule to see how many road games in that first couple of Yeah. So, and and this this year was also we know is the death of the paper transaction. Yeah. Yeah. You have to make real transaction. Guys actually have to be around for a little while. So, you don’t want to be going up and down all the time. Yep. Um, so the season opens in LA, then they’re home against Utah, Dallas, and then they go to Buffalo to Columbus before coming back home against Boston. Yep. And for the record, final rosters don’t have to be submitted until Monday afternoon. So, the ABS can take a little bit of extra time with this decision if they want to. Um, yeah. part of that new paper transaction rule also just to explain it out. If you do send a guy down, they need to play at least one AHL game before you call them back up. So, is that a major decision? No. But you cannot do the thing where you are sending guys down to save seven cents on the cap and then calling them back up. That’s that’s all it is. Yeah. So, they put OK Conor and Blackwood on IR to start the year. They can add they’ll have 1.3 million of cap space. So, they can add any of these guys that we’re talking about. Yep. Brimley at 950. Uh, and who was else was I looking at? Oh, Matt Steinberg at 775 between K left. Yeah. Yeah. Steinberg is the cheaper option. um by almost 200k, but we’re talking like a short term here. If you’re if you were making a decision for the entire season, obviously that acrruel will matter over three or four months, but but a couple of weeks, day by day. Yeah, it doesn’t matter. Yeah, I I I think I think me personally, I would be inclined to give it to Brinley just as a this is absolutely everything that you want out of a guy. Yep. In the preseason. Like this is this is exactly how you make them make a decision. This is this is the model that you want everybody to come into the into training camp in the future and say this is how you fight for a job. So, I think I would want to reward Brenley with that. At least the first couple of games. I would probably give him through the Dallas home game and then when they go on the road I would probably swap him out for Steinberg unless Gavin Brinley just lights it up like he plays and is great then I keep him. I fully agree and I want to dig more into that conversation. We do need to take our first break before we do jump into those forwards though. So let’s make sure we are headed over to our beer sponsor Kors Light. 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You’re going to you’re going to open up the door for me to make this roster. I’m going to make it. I’m going to I’m going to make it a hard decision to get rid of me. And coming off of what he uh had to go through last year, his first proseason, it’s really impressive. That mentality, the way that he bounced back, he didn’t get beat down by the AHL. I’m I really can’t say enough good things about Gavin Brinley. winning mindset for sure. At the moment, at at the moment, you have to feel real good about that deal. Like we were we were excited when Brinley was part of the package. Yep. Uh for Charlie Coyle and Miles Wood, something two years down the line, right? Right. It was It was certainly like after such a tough year last year in in the AHL, um we were tempering expectations. I even wrote in my uh training camp preview piece the that my player to watch was going to be Gavin Brinley. Yep. But it was with the caveat of I don’t think he’ll make the team, but I think that the way that he works is going to appeal to the coaching staff and his skill level is always going to be able to find a little bit of a home. And I think we’ve play we’ve watched that play out perfectly and it’s it’s functioned right like not only is the energy there, the consistency there every shift, but he’s produ produced a point in all but one preseason game this year. I think he got a point tonight assist on the power play. Yep. Um, it’s all been there for Brinley and you know, we’ll see when we get into the regular season if he gets games what it looks like against a full NHL roster, what his role is like on a proper third line. But when you do a direct comparison, and sure Olafson is a vet and he’s maybe not going 100%. But when you are what are we 17 18 days into preseason and every single day of that preseason Gavin Brinley has outplayed Victor Olivesson. I think you talked about this after game five, AJ. At a certain point, you want to see Olivesson bring that level up and protect himself a little bit. And he did score a goal tonight, picked up an assist with Brinley on that power play goal. So, there was at least production there tonight from Olivesson. But I I think he did like I I felt so much better about Olivesson’s game tonight than at any other point in the preseason. Sure. And some of that I think is going to be relative just because he’s one of the only actual NHLers that was on the roster. Not wrong. So you’re like, “Okay, well he should look better than a lot of these guys.” And he did. Uh but I I it’s it’s I think it’s also a really interesting conversation because Britley and Olivesson go about it so differently. They’re they’re completely different players and what you’re the the good and the bad that you’re getting out of them is completely different. Yeah. And and that that contrast is okay. Well, you could in theory have say Olson on your third line with Drury and Colton where they’re a little more offensively tilted and then you you trust Brenley a little bit more with the defense because he works really hard and uh he’s got the motor and he’s he puts in a lot of the work on the defensive end that Olson doesn’t so much and you can live with him. But you raise your offensive ceiling versus what you get out of Yul Kirr or Parker Kelly there. Yep. But I mean, you kind of you I I think it makes more sense to pick one. You a fourth line with Bardikov, Kelly, and Kivir just makes too much sense to open out of this season. I agree. And then you pick between Olivesson and Brindley. And I think Olivesson is still the default choice. But again, in terms of sending the message that what what Brindley did in the preseason can easily be rewarded. Yeah, exactly. And it sends a little bit of a message to Olson that, hey, our standard here is higher. Our expectation here is higher. If you’re if you’re under the gun for playing time like this, you need to perform. you need to raise your level. And we didn’t see enough of that and this kid did. Yep. I think that’s fair. I think that’s a good assessment of the situation. I do wonder. I mean, it’s ultimately going to come down to how the ABS see it and how much Brinley can scratch and claw for. But when you look at the ABS lineup, does Olivesson maybe find a little bit of extra juice being used on a power play unit? as opposed to Brinley being used on a potential PK unit. But Brinley won a lot more unproven. And funnily enough, in a world where the ABS are actually going to use two power play units, the ABS need a lot of forwards in the barn that can play on the power play as opposed to a penalty kill where they have a Kelly, they have a Drury, they have presumably a Bartikov. If you really get into it, guys like Nushkin and Landiskog can play on the PK as well. You could even throw someone like Lechinan out there on the forward core. It doesn’t feel like they really have a shortage of those PK guys. Yeah, but you you can also if you have Kivir in your lineup, you put him on your penalty kill and you can save some of those minutes, some of that wear and tear on the top six guys. True. You don’t need to do that with them as much. You you can you can just say, “Hey, we’ve got four guys in our bottom six that we really like on our penalty kill.” That should be what they’re there for. And with Brindley in a regular season game, I don’t think he’s getting on to either special team unit, but with Olivesson and Kivir, you’re putting one on each. Yeah. And so I think it’s it’s the most efficient roster use. The only reason that we have this conversation is because again, Gavin Brindley outplayed everybody that he was in competition for and made enough waves in the preseason that we’re talking about maybe giving him a couple of of games ahead of Victor Olivesson because he was just that good. Yep. That that’s this is pure credit to Gavin Brinley that we’re even having this conversation. if it wasn’t for his own individual effort. There’s a very real preseason where we’re saying, “Hey, hopefully he’s something, but he’s getting cut after game three of the preseason or whatever it was.” Um, I do want to sidetrack us for a minute here. I want to talk about Bardikov and and some other abs, too. But one, we saw some nonsense in this hockey game. Matt Steinberg, I appreciate the crazy, but uh someone’s got to get him a boxing coach or something. Matt Steinberg, hit me up. I know one. Tiff’s got the biggest thing. Um, sorry. Yeah, Tiff just completely derailed me because I was like, “Oh, yeah, she’s she’s in a boxing class. She knows.” Um, I think the biggest thing with Steinberg, uh, this is this is twofold here. One, I absolutely love that he’ll drop the gloves against Liam Bishell, who is much larger than him. Yep. But two, he sucks at it. There is some a very raw version of a bad spot. Very raw version of Cody Mloud inside that man. That’s watching watching him get smoked again. I was like, “God, does this feel like Cody Mloud?” It really does. But what Cody Mloud would have looked like had he come up on a good team and not those really mediocre teams where he could just sort of worm his way in. And then of course he had like the 15 goal rookie year where it was like he never even got close to that again. Yeah. Yeah. It felt It made it harder to get rid of him. Yep. Yeah. I mean, Matt Steinyberg had five hits tonight uh in seven penalty minutes in 16 shifts. He played 1104. Five hits in 11:04. Like, you appreciate that he’s doing that. Yep. He He goes out there and does the one thing that he does. Yep. He’s He’s crazy. And part of that crazy is Yeah. He’s willing. He’s like, “Oh, Liam Bishop wants to go. Send me in, fellas. I’ll take the punches. But, you know, you’re it’s like I guess I would I would want to ask I wish Eric was here for me to ask. When you’re sitting on an NHL bench like that and you’re watching your teammate get fed fists, does it really amp you up that much? If it’s a good tilt, of course, everybody gets into that, right? But when you just get dominated, are you kind of just like embarrassed for the guy a little where you’re like, “Oh, I love that.” To be fair, five minutes in the box for Matt Steinberg for just about anyone on that Dallas roster is a W. I mean, especially Liam Bishell where you’re like, “All right, there’s there’s a good defensive defenseman who lays the body also very active physically.” So, there’s some value there. That’s a good trade. Everything about it is good except for the part where he gets destroyed. Yeah, fair enough. just I don’t know where the the negative value comes in. Like is it is it two steps forward, two steps back? Is it two steps forward, one step back? Is it do you end up on the negative side? I have absolutely no idea. Anyway, fun. It was I good on Matt Steinberg. This is why I spent all summer being like, “Hey, look, the ABS are going to value him. They’re going to be able to find little pockets. I think he’s going to play a number of NHL games for for them this season.” And this is why he’s willing to engage. He’ll get down and dirty. He’s all about it. Just needs to go to the uh Sam Gerard school of only jumping players that are smaller than you. That’s what he’s got to learn. Or at least somebody in the same way class like like like not a clear mismatch. Yeah. Ottawa watched a couple of their guys get embarrassed and they went out and traded for Curtis McDermad, right? They went out and got like a heavy weight. You’re not wrong. Yeah. Like Matt Steinberg, you’re our guy. You know, yeah, there’s a bit of a difference there for sure. Uh we do need to take our second break of the show, so let’s make sure we hit that. Uh and then we’ll keep it rolling. We of course are brought to you by the folks over at Common Spirit. If you’re an athlete, a weekend warrior, and anyone who loves to move, for those experiencing any sports injury or chronic pain, the Common Spirit Mountain Region is home to an incredible sports medicine program, including their new sports center, Common Spirit Health in Parker. This team of qualified and passionate providers specializes in the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of sports related injuries for athletes, including even your Denver Broncos players. So, they know what they’re doing. Their experts understand the unique demands your body faces. So, you’ll get personalized treatment plans, combining things like physical therapy, injury prevention strategies, and strength training. This isn’t just about fixing what’s broken. It’s about preventative care, performance enhancement, and getting you back to peak conditions safely and quickly. Don’t let an injury keep you on the bench, or even better, get proactive about your health. For more information, visit mountain.comspirit.org. Common Spirit Health, official healthcare partner of the Denver Broncos. And once you’re taking care of your health and you’re ready to play, go get with the Colorado Soccer Association. It’s the official hub for over 65 soccer clubs across the state, offering programs for youth players, adult players, coaches, referees, and families who want to get involved in the game. Kids as young as age three can get involved and kick off their soccer journey. Whether you’re playing for fun, competing at the highest level, or exploring a career in soccer where some where there’s something for everyone, excuse me. Be part of history. With the 2026 World Cup coming to the US and the new NWSL team at Denver Summit joining Colorado, there’s never been a more exciting time to play, cheer, and be a part of the soccer buzz. If you want to get involved, visit coloradol soccer.org to find a club near you and be part of the future of the game. Third period of the DNVR Avalanche podcast. AJ, one more not so as related question for you and then we’ll get back on track. Tampa versus Florida day. Best or worst preseason game of the season? Both. Um, from, uh, you love that the Battle of Florida is going to continue to be mass chaos this year. Great. Love that. From the perspective of Sabarin smoking Aaron Neckblad in the face while he’s still woozy from the hit he just laid on him behind the net, you’re like, that’s so scummy. And it causes a chain reaction of events where both teams just start destroying each other. Carter Vhgi launches himself into a boarding penalty where you’re like, “Okay.” I mean, the guy just took flight. It looked like October Sky out there, you know? Like it just it was so it was silly. It was silly. It’s fun though. I mean, it’s it’s it anybody anybody that grew up in our era, you know, the ‘9s, uh, of hockey and any certainly anytime before that will will like remember like that time where teams genuinely hated each other and would try to hurt each other and it was just like hockey/brawl/cade match, but not like that. It’s not like that anymore. So now it’s kind of it it almost takes you back a little bit where you’re like, “Oh my god, this is overly violent.” And this isn’t even me being like soft-hearted about it. It’s just like it’s a little striking to be like, “I forgot that hockey could get like this.” I mean, look, I’ve obviously self-admitted, never been the guy that’s really into the heavily physical, brutal style of hockey. I definitely lean more toward the skill side of it and all of that, but I can at least be convinced, be it an important pre being it an important regular season game, being a playoff game, you can at least talk me into it if you believe that’s an advantage for your team in the preeason. What the hell are we doing? What is this? I I struggle to understand where the value is. Even if it’s like, “Oh yeah, these two teams are rivals and we truly hate each other.” Okay, then save it for a game that matters. Dude, y’all just beating on each other to beat on each other. Neither of you is getting anything good out of this. Both of you are probably now going to start the season with suspensions. Like what is this? Well, and like Sabarin’s not making the team, right? You know, like he’s he’s not really in in contention to make a team. So if he gets himself a suspension there, like why would they ever call him up at this point? Just okay, we’re going to call you up so you can get sus so you can serve your suspension. Go about your business. Do the same thing ABS did with Stein last year. Yeah. Wait until the postseason and then sneak him onto the roster so that it gets served and then you can be like he was suspended. Sorry. That’s tough for him. I mean, yeah, I’m I’m I’m with you. It’s It’s a preseason game. Like, what? This feels unnecessary. Especially it it it it’s tangentally related to what we saw in uh Dallas, Colorado tonight where Yeah. What is Jason doing Parker Kelly? Like, why why are we doing this? Well, and at least Parker Kelly’s going to be in the NHL this year, and it’s like, hey, these guys these guys can at least they’ll see each other down the road. Yeah. You’re not going to see Wyatt Amad or some of these other Jackan like erotic fact you’re bullying AHL players like what are we doing? Yeah. Yeah. Also kind of funny because I don’t know if erotic fox understood how big Alex Kanye was until he engaged and was like oh big boy. Okay. Which I thought was kind of funny. Sure. It’s funny when nobody gets hurt. I’ll put it to you that way. Yeah, it’s it’s it’s confusing like when like these types like Liam Bishell and Matt Steinberg. Matt Steinberg we’re talking about maybe he makes the 13th forward spot and Liam Bishell is an every night guy for them, you know, into like a first round pick and like he’s going to be a big guy that they build around for a number of years. He’s an important part of that organization. No offense to Matt Steinberg. He’s not like he’s he’s got a role to play and there’s value uh in in having him around, but like we’re talking about a 13th forward here. Yep. Matt Steyberg has nothing to lose. That’s that and everything to gain by being like that’s tango. Yeah. I Yep. What’s Lean Bishell doing? I He just only knows one way to be, I guess. But yeah, praise for the consistency. Well, and and like you throw you throw Steinberg in there and you at least have a guy that will consistently like get a little crazy and because he’s not so big. This was the thing with Curtis McDermad, right? We always lamented Curtis McDermott on the roster because Well, yeah. Guys didn’t want to fight him cuz they were like, I’m going to get hurt. Yeah, he was really big and a good fighter. So, it was like, I’m going to get hurt. This is a bad idea for me. Matt Steinberg’s a bad fighter and not big. This is the perfect combination for a guy that is going to be he’s going to go chase guys around and he’s going to shake the gloves and they’re going to go, “Yeah, all right. I’m good with this. Let’s dance.” If you actually want fights, you’ll get fights. I don’t know if that actually protects your team at all, but you’ll get the fight. Well, and and like you want him doing that and not Gabe Landiskog and Nathan McKinnon and and and Josh Manson. Like that’s that’s the value of Steinberg is that all right, you’ve got a guy that will go he’ll go to the mat for your for your team. He’ll he’ll do that. He’s fine with that. But he’ll take those five minutes and as you mentioned him trading five minutes with almost anybody is going to be a good trade for Colorado. Yep. So is what it is on that front. Getting back into the ABS. Zakar Bakov is clearly in the 4C. We’re not having a conversation about like, oh, who’s going to fill the role anymore? But yeah, what are real expectations for a guy like Bardikov this year? Can he is it reasonable to expect him to lock down a full-time NHL job? Is it reasonable to expect him to I pick up number of points, 20, 25 points this year season? Get through the first 20 games. Okay. Yeah. get through the first 20 games because we’ve seen penalties have been an issue. They were an issue again tonight. Um I know uh I say that and I know somebody always tweets at me when I say that’s not a good penalty where they’re like that’s a soft call and it’s like it doesn’t really matter if it’s a soft call. Like he’s in the box again. Yeah. You know, if that was his what fourth and fifth penalties of the preseason? Yeah. Is is every single call against him soft? like he’s already building up a reputation as a guy that they’re not going to give any leeway to because most of the penalties that he’s taking are dumb. And like I also don’t think it’s that soft of a call. He he extends the arms, puts the stick right on the small of a guy’s back as he goes into the boards. You put the stick in the into a guy’s back as you go into the boards. A penalty every time, man. Every NHL ref in the league, even if it you’d barely touch them, the optics of it, they’re going to call it every time. And that’s it’s not a vicious hit. it he didn’t do it. There’s not a lot of force there, but he causes the guy to go down and the optics of it. Yeah, it’s it’s going to be an optics call more often than not. Yep. It just is like it’s I hate it. I also agree that it’s a soft call, but like when you’re going bang bang, you you’re out there on the ice at at full speed. You’re looking at it going, “Oh, I saw the arms extended and I saw it in his back and I saw him go down in a heat.” That’s an easy penalty call for the ref. There’s not a lot of nuance there. done it a couple times this preseason. That’s one. You have to get into the film room and say just you just can’t do it. You just cannot do that. Well, and and penalties, we’ve talked about this all preseason. Penalties were an issue for Bardikov in the KHL. Yep. He had a tendency for that. And because so there have been so many good things about his game like they’re going to be willing to live with some of those. We saw we saw him make two really nice plays with the puck in this game. We’ve seen consistent skill from him, not just a one-off, right? Not like one burst and then yeah, okay, some physicality, right? He’s done a little bit of everything there. There is not as much as I would say like a Brinley, but there’s some offensive flash there enough to be functional. Yeah. And and I I say to answer your question, if he sticks for the whole season, I want to see a 20point year. Okay. Like that’s that would be to me I think that’s a smash home run. You got a legit 4C. He’s got to be able to He’s got to be able to handle the defensive end. Yeah. He’s got to be solid defensively. Not asking him for for him to be great, but he’s got to be solid. And if he drives a little bit of offense and he brings a little bit uh of of skill and he raises that that offensive ceiling on on your bottom line, you love that. Yep. His skating, his physicality, it’s going to fit in really really well. It has fit in really well. It’s not hard to see that. But the discipline has to be there. He’s faceoffs are going to be a work in progress. You just hope that month over month it gets a little bit better because it’s going to be bad to start. You just got to accept he’s going to be that’s everybody new in the NHL. Yeah. That’s just very very few guys are good at it early on. Just just let him lose a lot of faceoffs. Don’t be scared to put him out there. Don’t get the heebiejeebies and be like, “Oh, let’s put Parker Kelly out there.” Parker Kelly’s going to lose it, too. He’ll tell you that to a man. and he’ll just I’m going to lose that face off. Let let Bardov grow. Yeah, I do think it’s important to define the discipline, too. When we talk about that, we’re not asking a guy to take zero penalties, but you also can’t take a penalty every night, right? You have to find that line. Part of the Katon Middleton problem last year is that all of the good that he was doing and you feel like, hey, there’s I can make an argument for these things, but he’s taken a penalty in half the games that he’s played. Yep. You got to That’s That’s a really hard sell. You got to tone it down. If you’re taking a penalty once every fourth game, all right, fine. Whatever. Who cares? But if you’re costing your team across an 82 game season, a penalty every other game is 82 minutes of penalties, like that’s it’s going to be really hard for you to even that out with penalties drawn. You know, Nasam Cadrick took a ton of penalties, but he drew almost more than almost anybody in the NHL. So, you were like, you can live with some of this because it balances out. I don’t know that it’s going to balance out. He has drawn a couple though and some of that I think is the surprising skating. So he gets on guys a little quicker. Um, you know, he’s so big that he gets he gets inside positioning on some guys that are like, “Oh my god, panic.” You know, so I think he will have a chance to draw a couple to try to balance them out, but he’s going to have to. And the the best way to do that, draw penalties and stop taking them. Perfect. And I I I it makes me think Jared Bner said something a few years ago um about sticking with this Avalanche group. Again, tangentally related here, but his a lot of his philosophy was bloom where you’re planted. Y and I think that he needs to keep that in mind with Zakar Bardov at the fourthline center. Y let him bloom where he’s planted. Give him time. Water the plant. Show him the video. Show him the mistakes. Let him adjust. Give him time to grow into the role. And if you get to the trade deadline, you have a mad scientist at the helm in Chris McFarland that will do something about it. But give him a give him a shot at it. Yep. You can’t block the path. You got to you got to let him walk down it or not. Um yeah, I do want to get into some more wider recap of the preseason things, but before we do that, go read AJ’s season preview piece. It’s ridiculously good. It’s It’s gigantic. It covers everything. There are some genuinely amazing quotes in it. If you haven’t seen some of the tweets we put out, the ABS really truly believe they are one of, if not the best team in the NHL with the talent that they have. The the vibes in that locker room are great. Um, you want to give me a sec? I can talk about this real quick? Yeah, you you you pull it up. I did I did interviews um with I don’t know like eight nine different guys throughout the preseason just grabbing some quotes that that all go in there and then I got a bunch of uh insider quotes ins I say insider quotes they’re like scout/executive quotes from around the league on specific players some good some bad like I think they’re all interesting that’s why they ended up in the piece. Uh, so there’s a lot of varying perspectives there. Um, but you get you get a lot. It’s not like I talk to two guys and then, oh, hey, here’s I quote them 19 times, right? A lot of guys um are quoted in there. There’s a lot of good quotes in there, a lot of interesting things. And yeah, one of the one of the big feelings uh that that you really get out of this and I would like to write a separate piece on this uh in a couple here is this is a team that really and every team every year is go camp and they’re going to say some version of really like the guys in this room. I think I think we can do something about it. But you always know when it’s kind of garbage. Like you you know you know when they’re kind of selling you a bill of goods. But you did not get the stock we’re good. We’re going to do our best quotes this year. Yeah. Yeah. And I write about Gabe Landisk’s return. The word aura and the words aura and presence come up several times. Yeah. And that is a hard to define, intangible, but one that I did my best talking about in the in the piece. So, I would implore people if you have an interest in it, you should definitely go check it out. I know that we have uh two different dieh hard sales going on right now for the website. One of them gets you a free hat. That’s the more expensive one. One of them gets you a free shirt. Uh that’s the less expensive one. All of them though um give you access to all the writing that I’ve been doing. And uh I just wrote 7,000 words over the last couple of days. Um that basically spanned the multiple weeks that I was in Denver doing interviews with players and kind of building out that that piece uh and getting a bunch of quotes from around the league. So um this is kind of a long-winded cell of it, but I would say uh please go check that out. It was um it was it was a lot of work that that went into it, but I’m proud of it and I think it does a good job of previewing the season on the whole. Yep. No better time to become a diehard. So, go grab that and go read AJ’s piece. It’s super awesome. Highly, highly recommend. Coming back around to ABS preseason and we’re not going to get into everyone today. If you want that, it’ll be in AJ’s piece. We’ll have a season preview that goes player by player on the roster, a video out on Monday if you’re interested in that. But based on the preeason, yeah, the other I call it a question mark if you want. Jack Drury at 3C. How much are we taking away from that based on this preeason? None. Okay, I think that’s fair. Yeah, I just Yeah, I think that’s uh we need to get him in real games. We need to see like I liked everything that I saw out of him. I didn’t I didn’t feel like he was overwhelmed. It didn’t look like it was too much for him. I felt really encouraged by all of it. But I’m also looking at it and saying the competition levels, the usage, they’re just rolling lines. He spent a lot of minutes against guys that aren’t going to be in the NHL. So, I’m not going to try and talk myself in too much into it. It is a lot of um I’m staying very grounded on this one. Uh I am not planning uh the Zakar partic jersey purchase. Well, I am, you know, with with the new guy. Um, with he has needed to release those jerseys still, by the way. Yeah, I’m I’m not spending money on a jersey, dude. It’s too expensive. Um, but with Jack Drury, like I am encouraged by a lot of it. And a lot of that is just because I believe in him as a player and his archetype and what he is. He’s so smart. He’s such a good playmaker and he’s he’s surrounded at the moment by two really good shooters. And if they put Brinley there instead, it’s kind of a kind of another playmaker, but a really hard worker and another really smart player. I think they could make some magic. I I would say the one thing that gives me a little bit of confidence. It seems like there’s some decent chemistry with there with Ross Colton and sure concern for quality of competition. All that fair enough. It’s not the production that I’m necessarily worried about, but we talk about all the time. If you’re someone like a Jack Drury moving up in the lineup like that, you don’t need to be the best player on your line, but you need to be able to play with the best player on your line. And so far, he’s given me reason to believe that he can play with a Ross Colton. Yeah. And it is interesting that we’re like, well, Ross Colton’s the best player on his line. And that’s mostly just because historically hasn’t been great also. But yeah, you also never unless your best player uh is like an elite wing, you don’t want your best player on the line to be a wing. Yeah, but there’s realities of the bottom six that that’s not always going to be the case. Yeah. Yep. Absolutely. Uh and Jack Dr. I think uh I’ve used this phrase uh in in season, but I think Jack connective tissue to two really good shooters. Yeah. Um, I think he can he could blend that their styles really nicely and I do genuinely think that despite that that trio’s lack of physicality, I think they they’re going to have a chance to be a pretty effective third line. Yeah. Uh, we we’ve talked about this a lot in the preseason, but it’s that deployment conversation, right? How do you want to utilize that line to the best of its ability? because you have a guy who’s great in the faceoff dot and Jack Drury, but certainly mindset wise, Colton and Olivesson are going to be North first type players. So maybe you look to find value with offensive zone faceoffs or maybe you change things up and and use Drury in a more defensive manner if you want to put him with Kivy Ron or Kelly or or whoever. Bring back the fourth line that has been so good for the ABS and Kelly LOC and and Kivy. though or yeah yeah that’s correct. Uh it’s it’s the preeason which is now over but that does not mean anything is fully set in stone. We know the ABS are going to spend the first 10 15 20 games of the season. I don’t want to say figuring it out but finding what works. Yeah. This year it’s going to be a lot less survival than it was last year with all the injuries that took place. Have a rash of injuries again. Yes. And not having a bottom five goalending tandem. Like if if they can avoid that start, they won’t they can spend a lot more time kind of figuring it out and not just trying to stay above water and stay in the race, stay in contact with the team in the race. Um, and I I do think that that’s a big difference in their approach to this season is you spend the first 20 games figuring it out. You spend the next 20 games kind of tinkering and and drilling down into, okay, this is what we want. This is what we like. This is what’s working. And then the things that they’re not working, they have to continue to adjust to and tinker a little bit more. Then you spend the next 20 games scouting for the guys that, you know, fill the holes. May not Yeah. may around the league that may be able to okay, we’ve identified that these are the areas where we’re weakest. Can we can we upgrade? This is what we’re going to be after. And then the trade deadline happens and then you spend the last 20 games drilling down and saying this is our team. This is what we’ve got. Yep. That’s that’s kind of the breakdown. So the first the first 20 games um is I think going to be a lot of like you can feel free to try some stuff. Again, Sam Molinsky on the left side is going to be you’re trying. Yeah. Yeah. A great example of that. And then the Drury Barov 3C 4C uh alignment is going to be another big part of it. Yeah. As much as we like to delineate the end of the preseason and being like here we go, there’s still plenty of experimentation to be had. Yeah. With the ABS lineup and and to be Go ahead. Just the the really nice part about that is that it’s an NHL lineup. You’re not looking at it going, “God, a lot of these guys wouldn’t even be in the NHL on other clubs. Yeah, this is these are NHLers. Parker Kelly is an NHLer. He’s a fourthline guy, but he’s a proven fourthline guy and we saw him at wing last year. When he got there, he got to go and do what he does best and he popped in a different kind of way. uh LOC, you know, Kibby Ronto, you know, like you feel really good that even the bottom of your lineup, NHLers like Sam Molinsky and Zakar Bartikov are like your your weakest links. Yep. And I guess Trent Miner is your third goalender. Yeah. Are your weakest links in your lineup right now. There is depending on how you feel about Brinley. You have a third goalender which maybe wouldn’t make a ton of NHL rosters to start the year. And honestly, the way Bardicov has played, I think he’d probably make a good amount of rosters to start the year. Now, it would be the 20ame test thing, sure, whatever. But this does not feel this feels like a team that is NHL roster ready as is. And then you get an LLC back and then you get a Blackwood back instead of starting the season down bad and it only gets worse as far as the number of NHL players actually in your roster. Honestly, you’ll probably get Blackwood back within the first days of the season. You’re right. I said those backwards, so fair enough. But I mean like we’re talking like he could miss like like four games. It could be it could be as little as that. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So, and it’s not like he would have played all four of those games anyway. Scott Wedge would have would have played one of them certainly. Yep. Even as is. So, and then the last so differently going into this into this the start. It really really not just like oh vibes are good like they’re as tangible. Look at how much better the ABS are set up to get out of the starting block this season as opposed to last season. It’s significant. And last season they were still a 49 win team. So, yep. Uh the last thing I wanted to touch on when we look at the ABS lineup, I think something I give them a lot of credit for is a lineup they’ve built to be incredibly flexible. And obviously every NHL team needs flexibility. But you look at the ABS top nine. Lechin could play on any of the top three lines. Nushkin could play on any of the top three lines. Landiskog, assuming health is good, could play on any of the top three lines. You even look at someone like Olivesson and Colton, and I don’t know that you necessarily want to move them up in the lineup, but if you need to, you can move a couple of those guys up into the top six. Both guys have had successful stretches as top six players in their NHL careers. Yep. Like it’s it’s not like you’re projecting. It’s not like when they moved Kibby R into their top six or last year when they had a second line of Ivan Ivan, Casey Middlestat, and Nikolai Kovaleeno. Tough. Like it’s a very very very different feel than that. Yeah. So, the having lineup flexibility just makes a team’s life so much easier because injuries happen. The unfortunate reality of the NHL, if you’re not the luckiest team in the league that year, you’re going to go through some injuries. And having a Colton that you can move up or if you have a bottom six injury, having a guy like a Brinley that you can call up or a Steinberg that can fill in Mhm. it goes a long way. It is it the difference between life and death? No. But getting through that 15 game stretch playing McKinnon 23 minutes instead of 29 makes a difference especially in an Olympic year. Yeah. Well, and this year it’s more like getting him down to 21 minutes instead of 23. Sure. But the other the other part you’re talking about versatility that I think we haven’t touched on very much this preseason is if you have the inevitable Josh Manson injury. Well, Sam Molinsky is right there. He slots right in. Right. Like that’s a very easy and you know he can play on the right just fine. Yeah. Yeah. And you that’s why you don’t move that’s why you don’t panic to him not being very good in the preseason and you don’t move him right now because you know you’re going to need him at some point. Sam is going to give you good good minutes at some point this year. But in the forward core, Parker Kelly was your 4C for a long time last year. Uh Ross Colton was your 3C two years ago and was surprisingly successful. So if you have injuries down the middle, you’ve got a couple of guys that can pinch hit there. You don’t love it, but you don’t hate it. Yeah. Right. Like, like you’re not like Ross Colton’s on the wing right now for a reason. They prefer him there, of course, clearly. But if he needs to step in, if something happens to a McKinnon or a Nelson and everybody has to slot up one, instead of making Jack Drury your 2C, you could put Ross Colton there. Yep. And then you put Olivesson and Brinley and Drury as your third line while Ross Colton is your 2C in between any of those wings in your top six. Like you can survive with that. Yeah, it’s serviceable. I’m hitting my mic. I’m sorry. You can survive in that in that environment. It’s it’s it’s not at all like last year where it was like, well, one injury here and you’re done. Yeah. If if Kale Mar or Nathan McKinnon or Devontaves goes down for an extended period of time, you are in trouble. But that is true for everybody. There’s just no replacing those guys. There’s it you just can’t. There’s no replacing. There’s nothing you can do about that. We are headed into overtime here. Make sure you continue the conversation online at the dnvr.com. And the ABS have made it through a preseason as healthy as they started it, at least as far as their NHL roster is concerned. Yeah, Eagles maybe maybe suffered a couple of injuries, but their NHL roster didn’t lose anybody. In fact, hoping that Baron is good. Yeah, of course. Uh, in fact, you even get a little bit extra confidence. Sam Gerard did play today. We already talked about it, but if he played in this preseason game, he should be good to go for game one of the regular season. Didn’t play well, but also his first preseason game. I have I could not hear whatever you just said. I don’t know why, but okay. Oh, I heard that. So, whatever. I said I said did not play well, but it was his first preseason game. Very clearly extremely rusty, but that’s why they played him in this game first and not game one first. So, also gives them a good chance to like test it out. Hey, are you good to go? And if you are good to go, yeah, knock off some rust. Now you’ve got a game under your belt. Yep. It’s It’s all all feels pretty darn good. You mentioned the aura around Gabe Landiskog. That’s back. I’m excited to see Nathan McKinnon and Kale Mar going full speed in a game on Tuesday instead of the 35 40 50%s we’ve seen in the preseason. Oh, dude. McKinnon especially. Yep. Unwatchable, man. It’s the whole preseasons. Can we Cutting it down to four games might not be enough. We need to cut it down to two games. All right. Oh, totally. Like, I’m looking forward to next year uh it only being four instead of six, but I’m also like by the fourth game I’m going to be like, cut it down to two. Yep. I liked uh Bedar had the like, well, do we make the rookie showcase bigger? Yes. Turn the rookie showcase into the minor league and rookie showcase. Play all your guys in like a four game tournament. You can make your decisions off that and then you have two preseason games to get your boys warmed up and you’re going easy. That’s all I got. So easy. It’s so easy. Just Yeah. Just stop being afraid to play things to to play. I’m saying I’m saying. Anything else you want to add, AJ, before we uh get out of here? No, just uh, you know, to reiterate, go uh read the season preview I put up on the website, sign up for a die hard subscription, etc., etc. Go do all of that. We are off Sunday and Monday, though, there will be the preview video on Monday for your consumption. But the next time you hear from us live will be pregame Tuesday of game one for the Colorado Avalanche. and the season will be going. I can’t wait. Can we just fast forward to Tuesday? We are out of here for this one though. Thank you everyone for hanging out. Like, subscribe. It helps us out. We’re trying to do big things this year. The more YouTube subscribers we get, the better. So, show us a little bit of love and uh we’ll show it back to you. This has been the DNVR Avalanche podcast presented by Bet 365. And we’ll talk to you Tuesday. [Music] [Applause] [Music]

The Preseason is finally over for the Colorado Avalanche as they finish with a 4 – 2 record but more importantly where do the Major storylines like Brindley, Bardakov, Malinski, and more sit as the regular season looms?

Intro – 0:00
Welcome in – 1:00
Couldn’t quite get out healthy – 3:04
Final cuts? – 11:10
A little too much nonsense? – 26:50
Florida going nuts – 32:08
Expectations for Bardakov – 38:25
Can you take anything about Drury at 3c from preseason? – 48:20

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