It’s a quick turnaround from the conclusion of the Olympics to the restart of NHL games.
The Avalanche had four key members of their roster play in Sunday’s gold medal game. Top line center Nathan MacKinnon and the top pair on the blueline, Cale Makar and Devon Toews, all represented Canada. The team’s No. 2 center, Brock Nelson, played for Team USA.
The game concluded late Sunday morning in Denver — just over 72 hours before the Avs play their first game in Utah. Given the short window of time for them to get back to Colorado and readjust to the timezone, head coach Jared Bednar admitted that the team could possibly ice a shorthanded lineup in that first game, perhaps with call-ups from the AHL filling in around the edges.
That includes Artturi Lehkonen and Joel Kiviranta, who played in the bronze medal game on Saturday.
Bednar didn’t specify which of the six would sit. It’s not even a guarantee that any of them will, just that it’s being discussed. But if the team does go that route with any of them, it’ll only be for that one game.
Colorado plays again on Thursday, the second of five games in a seven-day span out of the gate.
“I’m definitely not doing that. No. If we make a decision to sit guys on Wednesday, then we’re back to business,” Bednar said about the idea of load managing some of the Olympic participants past Wednesday’s game in Utah. “The five in seven nights is probably the toughest part of this. But if we’re fighting for first place, they need to play. Our guys are gonna have to play. Otherwise we’re gonna be chasing first place instead of in it, in my opinion.”
The Avs have 27 games in 51 days to close out the regular season. That’s one-third of the regular seasons alotted games in around 25% of the days it takes to complete a regular season.
The competition is also going to be tough.
“We got Minny a couple times early here, we got Dallas. There’s no easy games down the stretch,” Bednar said. “I think we get them as rest as we can before we play them, and then once we start playing it’s business as usual for basically every team in the league. Like the 27 in 52 days, take the five in seven out of it. After that, it’s kind of like what we’ve been doing all year long.”
He continued: “So we just got to get these guys recuperated and check in on all of the injuries, if we have any, and make decisions after that. If you start sitting guys for long periods of time, or these guys one game, and those guys the next, you’re basically playing the same kind of lineup we just had the last month, and that didn’t work out very well for us.”
The Avs are expecting everyone to be available. Martin Necas and Gabe Landeskog are already back in Denver and practicing with the team. Both of them missed the last chunk of games before the Olympic break, during which they represented their respective nations.
As for the six who return with a medal, there’s no sign of serious injuries among them. There had been speculation that MacKinnon was playing hurt in Italy, but Bednar didn’t have any information about that, if it’s true. But even if he is, it’s nothing serious enough to put him on the shelf.
“Well, they all played [Sunday] and [Saturday] so they should be good to go,” Bednar said. “Doesn’t mean they’re not going to be dealing with things, you know, that we have to manage.”
Nelson and Team USA spent Monday celebrating their gold medal finish. Those celebrations could extend well into Tuesday or Wednesday. If so, that could very well keep Nelson out of the lineup when Colorado takes on the Mammoth. But nothing is for certain as of now.
