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Tag: brock nelson

  • Avalanche finally solve Lukas Dostal late, but Ducks prevail in shootout

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    The Avalanche avoided being shutout for the first time this season, but Anaheim Ducks goalie Lukas Dostal prevented them from claiming two points.

    Anaheim defeated Colorado, 2-1, in a shootout Wednesday night at Ball Arena. The Avs are now 3-1-2 on this season-long, seven-game homestand that wraps up Friday night against the Philadelphia Flyers.

    “End of the day, their goalie had a big night and we had a tough time some of our execution early, so it wasn’t sustained for 60 minutes,” Avs coach Jared Bednar said. “Then (we) got a lot of good looks and just couldn’t put them in the back of the net.”

    Dostal finished with 40 saves, including 19 in the third period and overtime. Scott Wedgewood made 16, including a pair of breakaway stops in extra time.

    It took 34 shots and more than 56 minutes for the Avalanche to solve Dostal. Artturi Lehkonen buried a one-timer on a pass from Brock Nelson with 3:39 remaining in the third period to make this a 1-1 hockey game.

    “I thought we were pretty all over it,” Nelson said. “Didn’t really give them a whole lot. They maybe had one or two little flurries, but I thought we had a fair share of good looks. Just couldn’t get one earlier to kind of crack it and get momentum.”

    While the Avs had a 20-10 lead in shots on goal through two periods, the scoring chances were pretty even. Colorado did pour on the pressure in the third, racking up an 18-3 advantage in scoring chances, per Natural Stat Trick.

    Anaheim nearly stole a late winner in regulation, but after Wedgewood stopped the initial shot, both he and Victor Olofsson dove into the blue paint to keep the puck from crossing the goal line.

    The Avalanche tried out a new-look top line in this contest. Olofsson joined Nathan MacKinnon and Martin Necas on the first unit. Olofsson also joined the top power-play unit.

    Colorado’s typical top line, MacKinnon between Necas and Lehkonen, has logged the second-most minutes together at 5-on-5 of any forward trio in the NHL this season (460.8 minutes), trailing only Winnipeg’s top unit of Mark Scheifele between Kyle Connor and Gabe Vilardi (491.9 minutes), per MoneyPuck.

    “I liked (Olofsson) a lot,” Bednar said. “Victor has been playing a real good, solid 200-foot game. He started to chip in a little bit here offensively and I wanted to make a switch.

    “Sometimes it’s just good to change the mix of that top six. I want them all to be able to play with each other at different times.”

    Anaheim scored the lone goal of the opening 40 minutes on a counterattack early in the second period. Sam Malinski tried to poke the puck ahead along the left wall in the offensive zone, but Ducks captain Radko Gudas intercepted it and sent the visitors in the other direction.

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    Corey Masisak

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  • Avalanche power play springs to life, leads to 5-3 comeback win against Carolina

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    RALEIGH, N.C. — If the Colorado Avalanche power play starts to get rolling, look out.

    Already the NHL’s dominant team at even strength and the No. 1-ranked penalty kill entering the day, Colorado’s power play led a dramatic third-period comeback Saturday night. The Avs scored twice in the final period with the man advantage, with a goal from ex-Carolina forward Jack Drury in between, leading to a 5-3 victory over the Hurricanes at Lenovo Center.

    It was the 10th straight win for the Avs, who are now 31-2-7 after 40 games. The Avs now have two separate 10-game winning streaks this season.

    “It was a great effort,” Avs coach Jared Bednar said. “It would have been easy to pack it in, but I thought our guys, as soon as the puck hit the ice in the third, they were determined.

    “It was great to see our power play capitalize. There was a little frustration early on because of the pressure they put on you. They found a way to stick with it and get better on that unit.”

    RALEIGH, NORTH CAROLINA – JANUARY 03: Brock Nelson #11 of the Colorado Avalanche chases a puck during the third period of a hockey match against the Carolina Hurricanes at Lenovo Center on January 03, 2026 in Raleigh, North Carolina. (Photo by David Jensen/Getty Images)

    Newly-minted Olympian Brock Nelson scored twice. Nathan MacKinnon had an empty-net goal and four points, retaking the league lead from Connor McDavid with 74. Scott Wedgewood made 25 saves in his first start since Mackenzie Blackwood was put on injured reserve Friday.

    Carolina led 3-1 heading into the third period. That lead did not last long.

    Andrei Svechnikov took a tripping penalty 11 seconds into the third period, and the Avalanche power play started the comeback. Nelson tipped a wrist shot from MacKinnon past Carolina goalie Frederik Andersen at 1:09 of the third. It was Nelson’s 17th goal of the season.

    Drury then tied this contest at 3-3 just 33 seconds later. Ross Colton set him up for a shot from the left circle and his seventh goal of the year.

    “Huge goal,” Brent Burns, another former Carolina player returning for the first time since leaving, said. “He just does so many things right, so many hard things right. He’s such a great player, smart player. I try to sit next to him just to get some IQ into my head.”

    Nelson’s 18th of the season and second of the night with the man advantage put Colorado in front at 7:30. It was one of the prettiest goals of the Avs season. It was a tic-tac-toe passing play, with Cale Makar sending the puck to MacKinnon, whose cross-ice slap-pass set up Nelson for an easy one from the right circle.

    This is only the fourth time all season the Avs have scored multiple power-play goals in a game.

    “It’s nice,” Nelson said. “Another different way to win a game for us. It was nice to get a couple and be a big difference maker in a big comeback win on the road against a good team.”

    The power play that led to Nelson’s goal did not come without a cost. Devon Toews crashed into the end boards skates first and left the game. Nikolaj Ehlers was called for tripping on the play.

    Toews was down for an extended period, but did return to the game late in the period. After the game, Bednar said he believes Toews is OK.

    Carolina has been one of the most dangerous offensive teams while killing penalties for years, and the Hurricanes grabbed the lone goal of the first period while shorthanded. Sebastian Aho deflected a MacKinnon pass to Makar, and then got a piece of Makar as he tried to move the puck to Martin Necas.

    Eric Robinson intercepted that pass and sent it to Aho, who had already taken off behind Makar and went in alone for a breakaway goal at 18:09 of the first. That was Aho’s first shorthanded goal of the season, but it was the 37th shot attempt for Carolina with him on the ice on the PK, which is tops among all forwards in the NHL.

    It was also Aho’s 300th career goal. That’s also three shorthanded goals against in seven games.

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    Corey Masisak

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  • Avalanche center Brock Nelson named to United States Olympic team

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    Brock Nelson has earned the chance to continue a great family tradition.

    Nelson was named to the United States hockey team Friday morning for the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan. He will be a third-generation Olympian in his family. Nelson’s uncle, Dave Christian, won gold in 1980 with the “Miracle on Ice” team at Lake Placid.

    His grandfather and great-uncle, Bill and Roger Christian, were members of the 1960 U.S. team that won gold in Squaw Valley, Calif. One of their brothers, Gord, won a silver medal with the 1956 U.S. team in Italy.

    Nelson was a marquee acquisition for the Colorado Avalanche just before the trade deadline last season, then he signed a three-year contract with the club in early June. He has been Colorado’s No. 2 center since the day he arrived from Long Island after a long, productive tenure with the New York Islanders.

    “The center ice position is such an important position,” Avs coach Jared Bednar said. “You have to be a four-line team in order to win and your top six has to to be really good. If you’re missing that piece, it almost doesn’t matter how good your wingers are. We’ve got elite wingers on our second line.

    “But if you’re missing that middle piece — take (Nathan) McKinnon off the first line, put a different center there — it’s not the same. If you take Nelson off the second line, put a different center there, it’s not the same. You need the production out of those guys. You need them to be able to play against anybody, and you need them to be able to defend against anybody. Brock does that, and then he touches every aspect of our game — power play, penalty kill — on top of that.”

    Nelson’s all-around play is a huge reason why he will play for the Americans in Northern Italy. He was on Team USA for the 2025 4 Nations Face-Off this past February, which lost to Canada in overtime in the final.

    His play in that short tournament, and his age — Nelson will turn 35 years old in April — led plenty of prognosticators to leave him off projected Olympic rosters for much of the past 11 months.

    Nelson also got off to a slow start, production-wise, in his first full season with the Avalanche. But he’s been on a tear at just the right time.

    The rangy center has 16 goals and 30 points in 39 games for the Avs this season. He has 13 goals and 25 points in his past 23 contests, in which Colorado has gone 20-1-2.

    At 6-foot-4 with great skating ability, Nelson has arguably been even better on the defensive side of the puck for the Avs. Colorado has produced 61.1% of the expected goals with Nelson on the ice at 5-on-5, despite Bednar often leaning on his line to match up against the other team’s top players.

    That’s second on the team among the forwards, behind only Valeri Nichushkin, and fourth in the NHL among forwards with 300-plus minutes played at 5-on-5.

    Nelson is also third among the Avs’ forwards in time on ice on the penalty kill, which is ranked No. 1 in the NHL at 85.7%.

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    Corey Masisak

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  • Like other Stanley Cup contenders, Golden Knights have had far worse injury luck than the Avalanche this season

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    LAS VEGAS — The Colorado Avalanche could look across the ice Saturday night at T-Mobile Arena and see … themselves, from the past couple of seasons.

    Colorado faces the Vegas Golden Knights in a matchup of two division leaders Saturday. It could be the preview of a looming Western Conference postseason showdown.

    What it won’t be is two sides going to battle with all of its top weaponry available. The Golden Knights are trying to survive right now, with franchise center Jack Eichel, No. 1 defenseman Shea Theodore and No. 1 goalie Adin Hill all out with injuries.

    Toss in Alex Pietrangelo, who is taking the entire year off because of injury a la Gabe Landeskog, and the parallels between the 2025-26 Golden Knights and the past three additions of the Avs, which all dealt with significant availability issues, are even more similar.

    Still, the Golden Knights have been able to grind out enough points to lead the Pacific Division. Vegas, Anaheim and Edmonton all reached the holiday break level on 44 points, but the Knights have played the fewest games.

    “Teams go through adversity at different times,” Avs coach Jared Bednar said. “These guys are through it a little bit right now. The parody in the league is as good as it’s ever been … I do think there are some teams that usually have a big role to play that are going to finish right where you kind of expect them to.”

    To Bednar’s point, several NHL clubs considered top Stanley Cup contenders in the preseason have scuffled through the first half of the campaign. Vegas and Edmonton both have had struggles, while Florida and Tampa Bay have dealt with significant injury concerns of their own in the East.

    Colorado and Dallas have been much healthier, and those two clubs have soared above the rest in the NHL standings. But as the league gears up for the second segment of this season as a lead up to the 2026 Olympic break, the Oilers and Panthers have surged back into a playoff position, while the Lightning and Golden Knights have continued to struggle.

    “I think leadership, coaching, culture but also just having really good players and depth is big,” Avs center Jack Drury said. “Those are all well-coached teams. I think that helps a lot.”

    Vegas has teetered a bit without Eichel, though. He’s missed the past four games, which includes losses to New Jersey, Calgary and Edmonton. Mitch Marner, the marquee offseason addition for any NHL team, has spent some time at center with both Eichel and William Karlsson out of the lineup.

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    Corey Masisak

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  • As Jared Bednar tries new line combos, Avalanche keeps winning

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    This edition of the Colorado Avalanche has been so consistently good that Jared Bednar, often a tinkerer when he’s looking for a spark, hasn’t needed to turn the line blender on very often.

    After starting 31 consecutive games with the same top line, the Avs’ top trio had a new look Saturday night in a 4-2 win against the Nashville Predators. Well, new to start a game, anyway.

    Bednar moved rookie Gavin Brindley to the top line in the middle of the previous game, a 6-2 thumping of the Florida Panthers. Brindley started a game there for the first time, bumping Martin Necas down to the third line.

    “Awesome,” Brindley said. “Playing with the best, if not one of the best players in the world. Pretty damn cool. I never thought that would come to fruition. Yeah, really cool.”

    NHL’s rash of overtime games needs a solution: Three-point games

    Bednar’s rationale was pretty simple: He liked how Brindley played with Nathan MacKinnon and Artturi Lehkonen the game before, and wanted to see it again. Part of the reason for the switch Thursday against the Panthers was Necas has been playing through an illness, and didn’t love how he was playing.

    It says something about how this season is going for the Avs that Necas still set up a goal and scored one, albeit one that was taken off the board because of an offsides challenge, against Florida.

    There are still 50 games left in this season, but the Avs have steamrolled their way to the top of the NHL standings. They have 53 points in 32 games, which is tied for the third-most in league history at this point.

    Bednar’s philosophy on building lines has a couple of core ideas. If he finds a line he really likes, he will stick with it for long stretches, and will likely to go back to at some point in the future. But, he also likes to tinker, and often says he wants every player to play with everyone over the course of a regular season.

    “It’s definitely a bonus,” MacKinnon said of the flexibility. “We might need different combos eventually. I think it’s good to switch things up sometimes. I thought all four lines played pretty good (Saturday night).”

    The past couple of Avalanche teams have given him good reason to shake up his lineup, either with slow starts to the season or in-season funks. The closet thing this group has had to an adverse stretch was a four-game losing streak that still involved collecting three points (0-1-3).

    So, after 30 overwhelmingly successful games, Bednar did a little tinkering. Brindley’s return to the lineup against Florida led to a few new looks. Ross Colton moved to the middle for the first time all season, centering the third line. Brindley slotted in next to him, playing with the third line for the first time.

    Jack Drury moved down to the fourth line, with Parker Kelly and Joel Kiviranta. A trio of Drury, Kelly and Logan O’Connor became of Bednar’s favorite lines last season, and they had an excellent playoff series against the Dallas Stars.

    Roster construction and O’Connor’s injuries has kept that line apart this year, but Bednar has said they will play together again at some point. And Kiviranta is a pretty similar player to O’Connor.

    Grading The Week: Avalanche need to avoid first-round dogfight vs. Dallas, Quinn Hughes in Stanley Cup Playoffs

    Drury took the demotion in stride against Florida, and then scored Colorado’s second goal against Nashville.

    “It’s easy. It’s part of being a pro,” Drury said before the Nashville game. “I’ve said this before, but there are so many good players (here), it doesn’t really matter who you are going out with. Any forward you go out with is going to be able to make plays and be smart. It’s easy.”

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    Corey Masisak

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  • Avalanche’s Nathan MacKinnon, Brent Burns share passion for training, off-ice work: ‘I’ve already learned a lot from him’

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    Nearly two years ago, Jared Bednar offered four words that summarized Nathan MacKinnon’s rise to the top of the NHL en route to his first Hart Trophy: We get in late.

    Bednar’s team altered its travel itinerary to accommodate MacKinnon’s postgame recovery routine, which several of his Colorado Avalanche teammates also partake in. It’s just part of the near mythological tale of MacKinnon’s off-ice commitment to on-ice excellence.

    Brent Burns has cultivated a similar reputation across more than two decades in the NHL. His passion for off-ice training and taking care of his body is a big part of why he has played more than 1,500 NHL games and will have a plaque inside the Great Hall at the Hockey Hall of Fame three years after he’s done playing.

    This is his first season with the Avalanche, and he’s offered an addendum to the lore of MacKinnon and his teammates’ zeal for the work they put in during the season: They get in early.

    Burns has mentioned this a few times. He’s always prided himself on being one of the first guys at the rink every morning, going back to his days with Joe Thornton and the San Jose Sharks. Then he signed with the Avs, and he started seeing a bunch of cars when he pulled into the Family Sports Center parking lot.

    “That’s been a huge blessing for me coming here,” Burns said. “There’s so many guys here that are so dedicated to it.”

    There were plenty of reasons to believe Burns and the Avalanche could be a good fit when he signed a one-year, incentive-laden deal on July 1. One of the most obvious: Burns is a workout warrior, a guy who has always been a leader in that aspect for every team he’s played for.

    The idea of MacKinnon and Burns being on the same team conjured up images of the scene from Step Brothers, when Brennan Huff (Will Ferrell) asks Dale Doback (John C. Reilly), “Did we just become best friends?”

    While MacKinnon and Burns haven’t done any karate together in the garage, Burns has enjoyed getting a behind-the-scenes look at what helps make MacKinnon one of the best players of his generation.

    “Nate is very well known for a lot of his things and (expletive), I’ve already learned a lot from him,” Burns said. “We talk quite a bit about it. I love picking his brain.

    “This stuff changes all the time, and Nate is obviously at the tip of the spear for all of it. It’s been awesome. I love that he loves to share and lets other guys know. That’s a really great thing. A lot of us can learn a lot from a guy like that.”

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    Corey Masisak

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  • Avalanche center Brock Nelson on Islanders reunion at Ball Arena: ‘It will be weird’

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    For the better part of a dozen years, Brock Nelson would cue up video of the New York Islanders and watch himself move around the ice.

    That’s the weirdest part for him now. When he tunes in to check out his old pals or catches Islanders highlights, that’s not him when No. 29 makes something happen.

    It’s going to be an interesting weekend for Nelson and a different kind of Sunday night at Ball Arena. The guy who used to wear No. 29 for the Islanders will play against them for the first time since being traded to the Avalanche. The guy who used to play here, Jonathan Drouin, is now the guy wearing No. 29 for his old club.

    “Yeah, (Drouin) texted me just to see if it was OK,” Nelson said. “It is funny — there’s a couple times where I watch their games and that just looks funny. Anytime I watched video for 12 years, I was just so programmed to be like, ‘OK, there I am.’ It’s weird to see somebody else out there.

    “He’s a great guy, great player and it’s just a number. I told him I’d never tell him not to wear the number. I’m not there. Go ahead. But I appreciate him even thinking that he had to reach out.”

    Nelson was a marquee addition ahead of the 2025 NHL trade deadline for the Avs. He became the biggest move of the offseason as well, when the club kept him in Denver with a three-year, $22.5 million contract ahead of him reaching the free-agent market.

    It’s been a pretty seamless fit with the Avalanche. He was already friends with Devon Toews from their days together on Long Island. He had an off-ice workout connection with Nathan MacKinnon.

    Now Nelson will get the first of two reminders of his previous life in rapid succession. The Avs play Sunday at home against the Islanders and then travel to Long Island for the return match in less than three weeks.

    “It will be fun to see those guys,” Nelson said. “There’s a lot of them I haven’t seen since the trade. I’ve talked to a lot of them. It will be weird. It will be different. Hopefully, I’ll see a few of them the day before and catch up a little bit. But I’m glad it’s here first and I get to see them before going there.”

    The last time Nelson played at UBS Arena, he was named the No. 1 star of the game. His on-the-bench postgame interview was an emotional one — for him and Islanders fans. Everyone involved knew a trade was imminent.

    “I’ve never really gone through anything like that,” Nelson said. “You see guys going back after long stints, and it can be emotional. So, yeah, I think it would be tough if we were going back first. It will be nice to get through this one, just to kind of see them.

    “I’m sure there will be a couple of laughs, a couple funny chirps going back and forth. Just some good banter.”

    Toews wasn’t with the Islanders for as long, but it was the organization that drafted him. He went through a similar situation — getting traded to Colorado, trying to find his place on a team with high expectations and settling into a completely new NHL environment for the first time.

    Through Toews’ eyes, Nelson’s transition is going well.

    “He’s playing great,” Toews said. “He’s not a guy that’s ever going to dwell on stats and things like that. He’s been a positive contributor to our team. That’s what he needs to be. Points will come when they come. He’s been a great addition to our penalty kill. He’s a great faceoff guy, which I knew from my time with him in New York. He’s finding ways to contribute in different ways.

    “When you bring in guys like that, it raises your standard for your structure and your detail in your game. That’s sometimes lacking with younger guys, guys that are still learning and finding their way. Those (veteran) guys help with those details and then help the young guys as well, making sure they’re doing the right things and are in the right places instead of just being hyper focused on producing offense.”

    Nelson has been the No. 2 center since the day he arrived. There was no question about the role he would play, which helps. Having guys like Toews and MacKinnon in his corner from day one also helped.

    The offensive numbers have not matched his days on Long Island to this point. He had a mid-career renaissance from 2021-24, scoring at least 34 goals and 59 points in each of those three seasons.

    In 37 games with the Avs, he has 10 goals and 20 points. This year, it’s four goals and seven points in 18 games.

    The one part of his role that is different is the offensive expectations. The Avs don’t need Nelson to score 30-plus goals and drive the offense on a consistent basis to be successful.

    New York needed him to raise the team’s ceiling. In Denver, he has helped raise the Avs’ floor.

    “If you look at his analytics and underlying numbers, they’re all good,” Avs coach Jared Bednar said. “He’s a really smart, really well-rounded 200-foot player. From my tally, he’s fourth on the team in scoring chances. He hasn’t scored easily so far, but he’s right there tied with Val and his defensive metrics have been good. It’s just about trying to give him more shooting opportunities.

    “Part of it is just the steadiness of his game and doing the right thing all the time.”

    Nelson was a fixture in the Islanders’ core for years, but life changes quickly in the NHL. Calum Ritchie, who was part of the Avs’ package to get Nelson, will be on the other side and could be a key part of the Isles’ future. Trading Nelson was part of a reset, which was turbo-boosted when the Islanders won the draft lottery and landed defensive wunderkind Matthew Schaefer with the No. 1 pick in the 2025 NHL draft.

    Drouin is helping to replace some of the offense the club lost when it traded Nelson. Schaefer looks like a runaway Calder Trophy winner and has changed the long-term outlook for the franchise.

    Nelson was part of the group that helped the Islanders reach back-to-back conference finals, the best stretch of success the franchise has had since the early 1980s when it ruled the NHL. He expects to have a chance to reminisce about those days Saturday night with his old friends, and then try and beat them Sunday night.

    He’s also looking forward to the game back there in a couple of weeks. His wife and kids are going to make the trip. They’ve got a couple of old stomping grounds spots lined up and plenty of friends to catch up with.

    “Sometimes I think back to my routine there and how programmed I was, how I knew everything about the surroundings,” Nelson said. “There are times where it feels like you’re still kind of feeling it out here, settling in. But there are also times where it feels like I’ve been here forever. Crazy to think it was 12 years there. It feels like it went by in a blink of an eye.

    “But the more you think about it and you expand the picture, you think about the life things that happened — kids, family, all that stuff, just the friends we met there — and I feel fortunate for the time I had there.”

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  • Avalanche sign goaltender Scott Wedgewood to one-year contract extension

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    Scott Wedgewood didn’t need a full calendar year to show the Colorado Avalanche why the club should want to keep him around.

    Wedgewood signed a one-year contract extension Thursday morning worth $2.5 million, a source confirmed to the Denver Post. The 33-year-old goaltender is in the final season of a two-year deal he had originally signed with the Nashville Predators, and he would have been an unrestricted free agent this summer.

    Instead, the Avs now have the “Lumber Yard” tandem of Mackenzie Blackwood and Wedgewood in place through the 2026-27 season.

    “It’s just a place that my wife and I have felt at home with,” Wedgewood said. “A great hockey team. All those guys in the room, I owe them a lot of beers for putting me in this situation. It’s just been a good fit since I got here.”

    The Avs traded goalie Justus Annunen and a sixth-round draft pick to the Predators on Dec. 1, 2024, for Wedgewood. It was the first of many roster-overhauling deals that general manager Chris MacFarland made last season.

    Wedgewood’s arrival helped stabilize the goaltending position. The Avs were last in the NHL in save percentage before Dec. 1. They added Blackwood 10 days later and had the sixth-best save percentage through the remainder of the 2024-25 season.

    Blackwood missed the first 12 games of this season, rehabbing from an offseason procedure. Wedgewood has filled in as the starter and leads the NHL with 10 wins (10-1-2). His .913 save percentage is fifth among goalies with at least 10 games played, and his 2.26 goals against average is third.

    Wedgewood said the deal was almost completed Wednesday night, but his wife likely found out on social media when it was officially done Thursday morning because it was just before the morning skate at Ball Arena. His parents are also in town to help celebrate.

    “It’s a chance to play 30-plus games, a chance to be on a really good team, a chance of winning (the Stanley Cup),” Wedgewood said. “When you put it in that perspective, it’s probably the best spot in the league to be a 1A and 1B with (Blackwood).”

    The Avs also have Ilya Nabokov, a second-round pick in the 2024 NHL draft, under contract for next season. Nabokov, 22, was the KHL playoff MVP in 2024 and is expected to join the Avs in the spring after his season with Magnitogorsk ends.

    After back-to-back strong seasons as Magnitogorsk’s starter, Nabokov has struggled at times this year.

    “We’ve got Nabokov coming, we’ve got Blackwood locked in (through 2030), but Nabokov’s never played in North America or the NHL,” Bednar said. “(A) good prospect and has some growth that he still needs in his game.

    “When you get a guy (like Wedgewood) who wants to be here and fits in your culture and then performs like this on the ice, I think the natural progression is trying to get him locked up.”

    Nichushkin week-to-week

    When Gavin Brindley signed a contract extension Tuesday, his coach said he believes the 21-year-old can be a top-six forward in this league. Two days later, he is one.

    Valeri Nichushkin will miss at least a handful of games and is week-to-week, Bednar said Thursday morning. The club expects to have a better handle on his timeline early next week.

    “Nothing too serious, which is good, but serious enough that he’s going to miss a handful of games at least,” Bednar said.

    The Avs have had players missing with injuries this season, but the top-nine forwards all played each of the first 17 games.

    In the meantime, Brindley will move up to the second line Thursday night against the Buffalo Sabres and play next to Brock Nelson and Ross Colton. Brindley has been an early-season surprise for the Avs, earning more trust from the coaching staff while playing primarily on the fourth line.

    “Gavin Brindley — that’s how we (replace him),” Bednar said. “With Val, it’s power play, it’s penalty kill, it’s top-six minutes, it’s empty net when you need one and empty net when you need to keep the other team off the board. It’s a lot of different duties that we will split up.

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    Corey Masisak

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  • Avalanche Journal: Five thoughts on Colorado’s fast, drama-free start

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    Jared Bednar, an avid angler, likes to compare his hockey team over a long season to a boat.

    He sees it like this: The team builds its identity and what it wants to be over the first part of the season, and then there are aspects that just break during the grind of 82 games — kind of like a well-used fishing vessel. How quickly the club fixes the issues and regains its optimal performance is a big part of a successful campaign.

    The Colorado Avalanche left the dock with a major leak last season. Fixing the boat on the fly was an all-hands-on-deck situation, from the coaching staff to the front office.

    The start of the 2025-26 season has been a complete 180. The Avs were 4-0-1 heading into a Saturday night contest at Ball Arena with the Boston Bruins, and the one blemish might have been the best overall performance considering the foe.

    Colorado’s NHL team is relatively healthy, stable and off to a strong start. The Avs allowed eight goals in the season opener last year. They’ve allowed eight total in the first five contests.

    “Overall, a pretty good start, being able to win hockey games without really having played our best as a team,” Avs captain Gabe Landeskog said. “If you can figure out your game as a team while winning, and kind of go through some of those growing pains at the start of the season while racking up some points, I think that’s a positive thing.

    “And I think we are only scratching the surface.”

    Here are some observations from the first five-game segment of this Stanley Cup-or-bust season in Denver.

    1. Nathan MacKinnon is already in Hart Trophy finalist form

    Natural Stat Trick had MacKinnon on the ice for 17 scoring chances in Buffalo. He took 17 shifts in the game. The 2024 league MVP has been on the ice for 49 scoring chances at 5-on-5, which is tied for third among forwards. The two players ahead of him and the one who is even are all on the two-time defending champs, the Florida Panthers, who have also played an extra game.

    The Avs have outscored the opposition 7-0 at even strength with MacKinnon on the ice, 10-0 overall. Those are just some numbers in a small sample size.

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    Corey Masisak

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  • Avalanche “dodged a bullet” when Brock Nelson’s wrist was cut by Bo Byram’s skate

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    BUFFALO — Brock Nelson will celebrate his 34th birthday on Wednesday, which means he’s experienced a lot in his life as a hockey player.

    Nelson encountered a first Monday afternoon at KeyBank Center when he was cut on the left wrist by a wayward skate. It’s one of the scariest things that can happen in the sport. Luckily for Nelson, it went about as well as one of those situations can.

    “When I felt it, it kind of felt like a stinger-type feeling in my hand. I knew I got hit by something, then I looked and I saw it was cut,” Nelson said after the Avalanche defeated the Buffalo Sabres, 3-1. “I knew I was cut, so I just went off (the ice). I’ve never really had a cut like that before. When I saw the cut, I was almost waiting for more blood to come out. I think it was just clean and more superficial. Just a couple zips.”

    Nelson went to defend ex-Avs defenseman Bo Byram along the boards near the Colorado bench early in the third period. Byram got the puck past him, but also fell awkwardly to the ice. His right leg elevated as the rest of his body tumbled, and caught Nelson just under his glove.

    For all of the protection hockey players wear, there are a few places on the body that can get exposed in those types of situations. Nelson flung off his glove, looked at his hand/wrist, and immediately went to the Avs bench, down the tunnel and in search of a doctor.

    “We dodged a bullet there,” Avs coach Jared Bednar said. “He got a laceration on his wrist, got some stitches, but as of now, everything looks intact. It was just the flesh, which is super lucky.”

    Nelson said they tested his fingers, and everything checked out. He ended up missing less than eight minutes of game action, and returned to play three shifts in the second half of the third period.

    Both Nelson and Bednar said they think he’s fine moving forward. The Avs have been relatively healthy to start this season, but losing Nelson for any amount of time would be a significant blow.

    This is his first full season with the club, and Bednar clearly enjoys having him available to center the second line. Nelson, even with missing a few shifts against the Sabres, has played 82:30 in the first four games.

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    Corey Masisak

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  • Keeler: Avalanche roster hasn’t been this old since 2007. Will time, and Stanley Cup, finally be on GM Chris MacFarland’s side?

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    The Condor hung up his wings for good Monday. If Eric Johnson turning 37 makes you feel old, imagine how it makes him feel.

    “You snap your fingers and your career is over, and it’s so short in the big picture of your life,” Johnson, who patrolled the Avalanche’s blue line from 2011-2023 and then again for a smidge earlier this year, mused at Family Sports Center. “And it’s so short in the big picture of your life, that I just figured that, ‘Why not come to the rink every day like it’s the best day ever?’ I hope that rubbed off on people over time.”

    RELATED: Meet the 2025-26 Colorado Avalanche: A breakdown of the complete team roster

    Sure did. But seeing the affable EJ call time on a stellar run was also a reminder, and not a sunny one, that the Avs’ current core is creeping closer to the end of the movie than the beginning.

    Brent Burns isn’t the only greybeard in the building. Colorado, per EliteProspects.com, opens the 2025-26 season on late Tuesday in Los Angeles with the fourth-oldest roster in the NHL at an average age of 29.17 years. It’s the third-oldest in the Western Conference behind Winnipeg (30.17 years) and the Kings, their first-night sparring partner (29.74).

    The Avs’ roster as of Monday morning featured nine players 30 or older. It’s the first time a Colorado roster sported an average age over 29, according to the Elite Prospects database, since 2006-07. Joe Sakic was 38 then. That group totaled 95 points but missed the Stanley Cup Playoffs for the first time since the franchise relocated from Quebec City.

    Coach Jared Bednar is juggling a few katanas while the Sword of Damocles dangles over his head this season. But load management is among the trickiest, given the annual grind of the Western Conference and the usual stratospheric stakes.

    Push the guys in order to snatch home ice? Or ease things up with the marathon of 7-8 months in mind? When your captain’s still testing a new knee on the fly, there’s no easy answer.

    “I think Bedsy and the staff … are going to be smart, particularly with (Gabe) Landeskog, right?” Avs general manager Chris MacFarland replied Monday when I asked about the load. “We’re going to glean information on how (Gabe) does in back-to-backs, or three (games in four days), or four (in six days) and his practice schedule …  He’s a really important player. So I think we’ll just we’ll glean that information … and we’ll read and react off that.”

    For years, C-Mac’s Avs were young, to paraphrase noted philosopher Bob Seger, and they were strong, running against the wind. Only those winds blow even harder now, and they’re not so young anymore. Big Val Nichushkin turns 31 in March. Landeskog turns 33 in November. Brock Nelson turns 34 next month. Among the defense, Josh Manson turns 34 on Tuesday. Devon Toews turns 32 in February. Burns turns 41 in March.

    Time is no longer on Bednar’s side. At one point Monday, MacFarland even sounded reflective, if slightly defensive, about the expiration date on what should’ve been an NHL dynasty.

    “COVID hurt us,” MacFarland said. “There’s no ifs or buts about it. And then the uncertainty of Gabe’s situation and the unfortunate stuff with Val. But that stuff’s in the past.

    “I think our guys, what Bedsy and our players have done is, that they have a chance. I think the organization’s job is to try and give them as good a chance as possible, and their play dictates that. I think over the last seven, eight years, their play (has) consistently dictated that. Hopefully, it will continue to do so this year as well.”

    To his credit, MacFarland has been as dedicated to tweaking and shuffling the fringes of his roster as former Nuggets GM Calvin Booth was to sitting on his hands. Better to try and fail than to shrug, as Booth did, while Father Time coldly ripped the pages from Nikola Jokic’s desk calendar.

    But Avs 1.1 (2023) and 1.2 (2024) never got as close as version 1.0 (2022 Stanley Cup champs) did in terms of bottling that combo of strong health, strong depth, strong special teams, strong goaltending, strong intangibles and strong matchups.

    Although 1.3 (2025), on paper, flew awfully close. Wise puckheads looked at Stars-Avs last spring and declared that the winner was easily bound for, at worst, a Western Conference final — and that we were getting a main event far, far too early. They were right, in hindsight. Not that it should make anyone in burgundy and blue feel any better.

    A long Cup run is a marathon, a two-month, uphill march of sweat, blood, guts, focus and willpower. It’s a battle of attrition and desperation; a story that inevitably demands a dozen hands and five or six heroes.

    Lord Stanley is one of the hardest trophies in sports to win and even harder to keep. And yet the fact that the Florida Panthers have made it look even easier than the Lightning did does not reflect as kindly on MacFarland and Bednar, who have been good at their jobs at the same time some peers have been great.

    It’s not unfair to assume the pair’s window might have already come and gone. If you’re curious, the last 14 teams with an average age of 29 or more from 2020-21 through 2024-25 averaged 95.2 points during the regular season. Eight of the 14 “old” squads reached the playoffs. And four of those eight got bounced out of the bracket in the first round.

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    Sean Keeler

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  • Keeler: Nathan MacKinnon says Game 7 loss to Dallas ‘like getting over a breakup.’ Now Avalanche star is healed, out for revenge

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    The ghost in the stall meant one thing: Nathan MacKinnon isn’t done haunting the NHL yet.

    As the Avalanche locker room opened for media a few Fridays ago during training camp, the big names crisscrossed, de-taped and unwound. Captain Gabe Landeskog held court at one end. Newbie Brent Burns grinned toothlessly at the other.

    “Every day, you see (MacKinnon) do 10-12 things that are like, ‘Holy (expletive),’” Burns, a veteran defenseman who came over from Carolina, cackled. “And usually I’m at the wrong end of it. So it’s not good.”

    Practice had just ended. MacKinnon’s skates were inside his locker. The rest of him was gone. Grinding.

    “Working out,” an Avs staffer told me.

    Twenty minutes became 25.

    “He’s riding the bike now,” another staffer said. “Will be a bit of time.”

    Twenty-five minutes became 30.

    Then 35. Then 40. Then 45.

    My phone buzzed.

    “He’s on the way,” a voice said.

    Think this man is easing up at age 30? Think he’s satisfied with one Stanley Cup?

    You must be joking.

    “I enjoy the day-to-day grind of it,” the Avs’ iconic center explained. “I enjoy working out. I enjoy skating with guys back home —  just relaxing and working hard and trying to get better. So that kind of keeps me in the moment. ”

    The rocket never rests. MacKinnon stands 6-foot in socks. But if carrying the Avs on his back, if dragging them kicking and screaming, gets Colorado another Stanley Cup in 2026, he’s good with that, too. Hop on.

    “Just trying to get my mind and body ready for a long season,” MacKinnon continued. “Each day I come here, I’m just trying to get a little better. Just try to win every day I have. And hopefully that takes me and the team to a good spot.”

    He’s in a better place than last May. That’s when old friend Mikko Rantanen, in what we hope doesn’t become a recurring theme, tore into MacKinnon’s chest and ripped his heart out. Rantanen, a stalwart of the Avs’ 2022 Cup champs, scored a hat trick to lead his new team, the Dallas Stars, to a maddening, series-clinching Game 7 win over his old one.

    “It’s like getting over a breakup,” MacKinnon said of last season’s ignominious end. “It just takes a long time. Time heals everything.”

    Including the Avs. Last spring’s wounds are this fall’s scars. Last October’s concerns are this year’s colonnades.

    Landeskog, the Captain, is back from the jump. So is big Valeri Nichushkin.

    Brock Nelson signed a 3-year extension to nip that nagging “2C” question in the bud. New winger Victor Olofsson can hit a flea from 50 yards out. Burns brings 6-foot-5 beef to the blue line, to say nothing of the best dang beard in pro hockey.

    “I think when you all lose together, you’re in a painful experience together, I think you can come out of it stronger,” MacKinnon said of the Avs’ first-round elimination by a depleted Stars roster. “No one (in this locker room) was blaming each other; it was all on each other. I think it was a tough loss. We lost to a really good team. But I think we’ll be better because of it.”

    Colorado Avalanche center Nathan MacKinnon (29) takes the puck down ice against Dallas Stars center Mikael Granlund (64) and Esa Lindell (23) in the first period of game four of the first round of the NHL playoffs at Ball Arena in Denver on Saturday, April 26, 2025. (Photo by Andy Cross/The Denver Post)

    One Cup? For Nate, it’s not enough. It was never enough.

    Mighty MacK’s good pal Sidney Crosby went seven years between championships. Colorado’s Burgundy Bolide turned 30 on Sept. 1. Father Time is the only dude MacKinnon can’t beat to the goal line.

    “This is our fourth year (since 2022), so you just never know when it’s going to come,” the Avs center mused. “It’s just … sometimes, you win a couple in a row. Sometimes, it took (the Penguins) seven. And (then) they won two in a row. Hopefully, that happens for us one day. But I like where we’re at.”

    Enter Burns. Enter Olofsson. Enter new assistant coach Dave Hakstol to help put some pep back into Colorado’s special teams. The Avs’ power play buzzsaw of the ’22 postseason was positively toothless in ’25 against the Stars.

    “It’s not a ton of turnover, like last season (when) we had like nine new guys,” MacKinnon said. “Most of those guys are back. So I think it’s going to be a positive year — positive that we have so many returning guys.”

    The negative? Landy turns 33 in November. Val turns 31 in March. Nelson’s 34th birthday falls on Oct. 15. Burns is lurching toward 41.

    There’s a lot of mileage in that locker room. And an awful lot of tread worn off an awful lot of tires.

    “I won’t look at Nate any differently if he wins one (Cup) or if he wins three,” Eddie Olczyk, the Warner Bros. Discovery and TNT analyst, told me by phone. “He’s won. He’s separated himself from many, many great players who have played this game.

    “In terms of game-breakers and difference-makers, (the Avs) have two of the very best at different positions in (MacKinnon) and (defenseman) Cale Makar. But you need to stay healthy.”

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    Sean Keeler

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