Avs Wrap Up System Work on Day 3 of Camp

CENTENNAL, Colo.--Through three days of camp, the Colorado Avalanche has covered almost all of its systems. All that is left now is practicing putting what was learned at camp into game settings.
"We've gone through all our systems now. We still have three-on-three, four-on-four, five versus six, six versus five, some controlled breakout and controlled forecheck stuff, there's other things that we will still mix in, but that is all of our basic systems," head coach Jared Bednar said after Saturday's training camp sessions at Family Sports Center. "We've gone through faceoffs, everything we have gone through in video we have practiced, so then it will become review."
Saturday's session marked the third day in a row that the Avs players were split into the same two groups that each spent about an hour running drills on one sheet of ice before moving to a fresh ice surface to finish up practice.

The team has a day away from the rink on Sunday with a final practice on Monday before the squad opens its six-game preseason slate on Tuesday at the Vegas Golden Knights. In that next practice session, the team is expected to mix up its groups as the day will focus on special teams.
"Special teams, groups will have to change. We will have to put some power plays together," said Bednar. "We have some ideas. I am going to sit and talk with Joe (Sakic) and Chris (MacFarland) and the rest of our coaches after this, get some groups put together so we have power-play guys and penalty-kill guys in both practices. Then we will probably flip it again because we got a game roster and non-game players, so the practice groups will be changing after that based on whose playing in the next exhibition game."
Both groups concluded their sessions on Saturday with the second skate test of camp, this time with units of five or six players taking different routes around the ice in a synchronized fashion.

These tests have become somewhat of a staple at Avalanche training camps but unlike last year, this season the players were able to be cheered on by supporters in the bleachers as Bednar steadily blew his whistle to signify the start time for the next group.
"Fans in the stands, it's nice to see the Avs faithful back and cheering us on. Last year was just very new and unique, there's a lot of moving parts and a lot of things that we weren't really use to," said Tyson Jost. "It's nice to get back into that routine and we're all familiar with this structure and the three training camp days and then going into exhibition games. I mean last year we didn't even have exhibition games either so, it's nice to get that routine back for sure."

GROUP 1
92 Gabriel Landeskog - 29 Nathan MacKinnon - 96 Mikko Rantanen
17 Tyson Jost - 18 Alex Newhook - 37 J.T. Compher
75 Sampo Ranta - 40 Artem Anisimov - 61 Martin Kaut
63 Andreas Wingerli - 15 Shane Bowers - 93 Jean-Luc Foudy
64 Benjamin Tardif - 41 Gabriel Fontaine - 54 Matej Kaslik
49 Samuel Girard - 8 Cale Makar
28 Ryan Murray - 3 Jack Johnson
56 Kurtis MacDermid - 72 Justin Barron
65 Robert Hamilton - 84 Nate Clurman
35 Darcy Kuemper
60 Justus Annunen
50 Trent Miner
GROUP 2
13 Valeri Nichushkin - 91 Nazem Kadri - 95 Andre Burakovsky
43 Darren Helm - 11 Mikhail Maltsev - 25 Logan O'Connor
27 Oskar Olausson - 9 Dylan Sikura - 44 Kiefer Sherwood
70 Nick Henry - 12 Jayson Megna - 74 Alex Beaucage
73 Dalton Smith - 68 Callahan Burke - 53 Jack O'Brien
4 Bowen Byram - 6 Erik Johnson
48 Dennis Gilbert - 26 Jacob MacDonald
67 Keaton Middleton - 88 Andreas Englund
46 Miles Gendron - 79 Jordan Gross
39 Pavel Francouz
31 Jonas Johansson
32 Hunter Miska

ONE TIMERS

Forward Tyson Jost on if he feels any pressure to produce:"Yeah, 100 percent. I think it's wanted pressure for sure. I mean, I want that responsibility and I want to take a step offensively too. I think my game last year, I really took a step defensively and stepped into that PK roll and think I really gained the coaches and Bedsy's trust for sure on the defensive side of things so that's my goal this year. I know I have the offensive ability; I've done it a lot throughout college and junior and whatnot and I know I can bring it to the NHL so that's something I really want to take on this year. I showed spurts of it last year too at the end stretch there where I was producing and putting up numbers, and that's what I want to see this year. But, consistency throughout year, so that's a big goal of mine."

Defenseman Kurtis MacDermid on what he brings to the team: "It's pretty obvious, just physicality is what I bring and just being heavy and hard down in the defensive zone and making sure the other team doesn't take advantage of any of the guys. I want to bring that presence to this team and this squad and make sure the guys are playing with that full confidence that they can and just let them do their job and if anyone wants to take liberties with anyone then that's when I can step in and step up for them, anything like that."

Forward Andre Burakovsky on playing on a line with Valeri Nichushkin and Nazem Kadri:"I'm really comfortable. Me and Naz, we've played with Val before and I remember we did put up some good numbers, we were scoring a lot together so I'm excited to get back to Val. Hopefully we stay on his line, we'll see but I feel definitely comfortable with this line."

Center Shane Bowers on going from the rookie tournament to main camp:"For sure there is a bit of a jump. Obviously, you are going from a lot of rookies to seasoned NHL veterans, so the pace definitely picks up a bit, execution is higher. I think it takes the first day to kind of get used to that speed, but now we are on Day 3 so I think everyone is used to it now."

Head coach Jared Bednar on Devon Toews' timeline:"He is cleared to do everything but contact so you will see him on the ice and eventually he will join the group in a red (jersey). Next step from there will be starting to take contact. I predict that when he gets cleared for contact it is not going to be a long process to get him ready to play. When they deem that he is strong enough, he's had enough time to heal--he's been skating lots, I came back a couple times in the summer and was here and he was on the ice already. He's been skating for a while, so he will be conditioned and ready to play. He will just have to get in, sort of buildup on some contact, join the group, go through full practices and then he will be ready to play. I don't want to speculate but that process will take probably a week, I just don't know when he is going to get cleared for contact and when he's going to play."