After a successful final home preseason game at Ball Arena, there was one more matchup to take care of before the Colorado Avalanche can turn the page to begin the 2026-27 regular season. A quick trip to meet the Utah Mammoth ended in a 2-0 defeat and a 2-2 final preseason record for Colorado.
The story of this game was that the Avalanche were shorthanded, in many ways more than one. First, as expected, it was mostly a Colorado Eagles lineup featuring only Brent Burns, Josh Manson, Nic Roy and Scott Wedgewood as mainstay Avalanche players. Only eleven forwards dressed including Nikita Prishchepov who was called up again from the Eagles to fill out the roster, but more on that later.
It wasn’t the start the Avalanche wanted with four minor penalties taken in the first period. Utah got on the board from Jack McBain off of some botched face-off coverage and a rebound found its way to the net front. Logan Cooley would add to the lead on one of those aforementioned power plays and Utah had the lead they needed after 20 minutes of play up 2-0.
Sometime before the second period it was determined that Taylor Makar’s night was finished. No official word on why but speculation on the Altitude radio broadcast was that he took a couple big hits in the first frame. Colorado did receive a couple power plays in the second period including a 5-on-3 but couldn’t cash in. In the final frame it appeared Kevin Stenlund scored a third goal for Utah but it was determined there was goaltender interference and the score was wiped off to remain at the 2-0 Mammoth final.
Nobody expected a masterpiece in this game especially with the roster Colorado brought west. But what was the purpose to expect such a lopsided defeat getting outshot 35-25 and even uglier analytics? Of course excusing veterans from travel was the primary motivation but it’s pretty tough to make final evaluations when it’s not even a contest in earnest. Thus, TJ Hughes and Gavin Brindley didn’t add much to their resumes in their final exhibition games.
Losing Taylor Makar was unfortunate as he’s also in the mix for a NHL roster sport alongside Hughes and Brindley. Hopefully his exit from the game is nothing serious. One other absence went completely unnoticed and that’s the fact that Zach L’Heureux did not play in either of the two games this weekend. He was on hand for the loss in Winnipeg but certainly he should have participated again. Especially considering the lack of forwards dressed in this contest and Prishchepov’s recall, perhaps something is going on with L’Heureux. That’s one way to get TJ Hughes on the opening night roster if it comes to it. The Avalanche are expected to practice on Sunday morning and might give clarity if there’s any absences from the skate.
The games begin for real when the LA Kings come to town on Wednesday, September 30th at 8:00 p.m MT on TNT.