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Tough way to open preseason |
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Rick Sadowski
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Neither coach Jared Bednar or goalie Semyon Varlamov expressed much concern following the Avalanche’s preseason opening 5-1 loss to the Vegas Golden Knights on Tuesday night at the Pepsi Center.
Bednar was more interested in getting some rust off the nine veterans who played and paying attention to the 11 prospects who suited up, knowing he’s going to be making some roster cuts as early as Wednesday.
“This game for me, it’s not really about our veteran guys, especially the core guys who played tonight,” Bednar said. “It’s about trying to get them into a couple game situations, give them a few reps here before we take a real close look at a lot of other guys. (The veterans) will end up playing the last two exhibition games; that’s kind of the plan I have going on.”
These were the lineups:
Varlamov played the first two periods and stopped 21 of 24 shots. Spencer Martin played the third and allowed two goals on six shots.
“I haven’t played in a while, it’s been a long summer,” said Varlamov, who moved well in his crease. “I’ll play a couple games before the season to get in game shape. It’s kind of hard to say how’s the game because you only played two periods; it’s not even a whole game. I feel all right.
“The first game is always tough because you feel like your net is way bigger than it’s supposed to be. Of course, I can play better. The first game, coming back from the summer, it’s always not easy.”
The top line of Gabriel Landeskog, Nathan MacKinnon and Mikko Rantanen combined for five shots and was minus-3.
"We were OK in the first period," Landeskog said. "We created some chances. I had one and Nate had one off the knob. We had a few, but after that it wasn't nearly good enough. It's game No. 1 and we've got some time here to get the rust out and get back to work."
Bednar was impressed with rookie defenseman Ryan Graves, who scored on a one-timer off a Tyson Barrie pass at 4:56 of the third period to slice the Avalanche deficit to 3-1.
Graves, 23, was acquired in February from the New York Rangers for minor-league defenseman Chris Bigras, who never fulfilled the promise expected of him.
Graves, who is 6-feet-5 and 226 pounds, had 17 points (five goals, 12 assists) in 78 games with San Antonio and Hartford of the AHL last season.
“I thought he was OK tonight,” Bednar said. “Big, physical, he’s hard on the puck, battles. Obviously he has a great shot, had a great one-timer in the second period and then the faceoff that he scored off; he’s got a bomb. He’ll be a guy that we take a close look at.”
Rookie Mason Geertsen was one defenseman who didn’t help himself. Geertsen, a fourth-round pick (No. 93) in 2013, took the only two Colorado penalties – Vegas scored a power-play goal on each – and was minus-2 in 17:31 of ice time.
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