After taking two days off and getting back on the ice on Wednesday, the Colorado Avalanche still don’t know who they’re facing in the second round. The Avs swept the Los Angeles King in the first round, capped off with a 5-1 victory in Game 4 last Sunday afternoon.

Meanwhile, the Minnesota Wild and Dallas Stars are still in the thick of things. The Wild took a 3-2 series lead on Tuesday night and have an opportunity to close it out at home on Thursday. If Dallas forces Game 7, it’ll take place on Saturday.

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So how do the Avalanche prepare for the second round, regardless of whether the Wild or Stars advance?

“Can’t answer that. Don’t know who we play,” head coach Jared Bednar said.

It will be interesting to see how things shift after the team learns who they’ll be facing. The lines were relatively consistent in the four games against the Los Angeles Kings. But it could be something that shifts for the second round.

“We’ll see who we’re playing, and we’ll pick our lines based on what we think the tasks are and the jobs are for those lines,” Bednar said. “What the matchups will look like, home and road, may change.”

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Bednar’s staff is very thorough in their preparation and what they present to their players. They break down teams well and have informative video sessions throughout the season. That gets kicked up a notch in the postseason, when you’re facing a team for pretty much two weeks straight. Some players still like to watch games on their own while the Avalanche have time off.

“We have guys that can tell you every play that happened in last night’s game, and then other guys probably didn’t watch it all,” Bednar said. “For some guys, it helps, and for some guys, it’s not important to them. And some guys maybe don’t even want to know.”

Josh Manson Update

The Avalanche’s veteran defenseman sustained an upper-body injury in the first period of Game 3 in Los Angeles and missed the series finale. When the team took the ice for practice, everyone was accounted for except for Manson. That’s all we know about his status as of right now.

“There’s [no update],” Bednar said. “Still day to day.”

The post Avalanche Practice: Awaiting The Next Opponent; Manson’s Status appeared first on Colorado Hockey Now.