Pre-Game Talk: Training Camp/Exhibition game talk (camp 7/13, exhibition games 7/28-7/30)

[forsbergavs32]

Figured we could use a thread to talk about these instead of the general playoff thread with camp starting tomorrow.

Will be interesting to see how many, if any, Avs players opt out by the deadline tomorrow.

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[Cousin Eddie]

I don’t think we’ll see any “opt outs” considering we already know everyone who’s there.

Martin Kaut never made the trip but we don’t know if it was an “opt out” or if he simply wasn’t invited. My guess it was a mutual decision.

 

[Avsboy]

Don't think anyone will opt out. Avs have a good team dynamic and they have a real chance at the Cup.

 

[AvsCOL]

 

[Balthazar]

I wonder if Kaut's heart condition could have something to do with him not being there?

We know now that COVID can attack all organs.

 

[The Mars Volchenkov]

Kaut’s decision is based off his ELC. I think they should have had him practice but they don’t want to be tempted to burn it, especially with the flat cap.

 

[Richard88]

I wonder if Kaut's heart condition could have something to do with him not being there?

We know now that COVID can attack all organs.

Sakic probably wasn't too keen to burn a year of Kaut's ELC by giving him one more game this season.

 

[AvsCOL]

Sakic probably wasn't too keen to burn a year of Kaut's ELC by giving him one more game this season.

Yeah this is exactly it. If Kaut even played 1 game, he would’ve burned a year of ELC, so he was never an option. Clearly they value his 3rd year of ELC immensely.

 

[Richard88]

Yeah this is exactly it. If Kaut even played 1 game, he would’ve burned a year of ELC, so he was never an option. Clearly they value his 3rd year of ELC immensely.

Yeah. We're going to be right up against the cap from 2021 onwards (after Makar/Grubauer/Landeskog/Timmins contracts). In 2022 Kadri will probably hit UFA and we'll likely need to use that $4.5m caphit to resign Bowers, Francouz, and whoever is the replacement for Kadri. Ideally we can push Kaut's contract to 2023 when the cap should rise again and when we're going to have something of a retool with Compher/Donskoi/Johnson hitting UFA at the same time as Mackinnon and Byram needing contracts.

 

[Freudian]

Avs have to play a practice game against the St Louis Covids?

 

[Avsboy]

Avs have to play a practice game against the St Louis Covids?

That's a round robin game. Maybe they won't make it to the game, so a free win.

 

[MarkT]

All the games are in the bubble, including the exhibition games, so that means plenty of testing. Its before they get to the bubble that we need to worry.

 

[Cousin Eddie]

 

[ndmd99]

 

[Avsboy]

Whoa, Wilson really is dead!

 

[Freaky Styley]

Landeskog - MacKinnon - Rantanen
Burakovsky - Kadri - Nichuskin/Donskoi
Namestnikov - Compher - Nichuskin/Donskoi
Nieto - Bellemare - Calvert
Jost - Kamenev - O'Connor
Dries - Bowers - Tynan

Graves - Makar
Girard - EJ
Zadorov - Cole
Barberio - Timmins
Connauton - Macdonald
Byram - Lindholm

would love for them to try out Nuke on the 2nd line again which was clicking just before shutdown. Would also love if Z was playing well enough to pair with G and have Cole - EJ 3rd pair. Though that might be a tad too slow.

I just don't see who they would sit for Jost. Will be interesting to see how they handle this after showcasing him/ his hot streak post-deadline, and his previous playoff performance.

 

[Freaky Styley]

Whoa, Wilson really is dead!

We might already have the deepest forward group in the league without Wilson. Bednar would have some really tough decisions to make if he was healthy. Imagine swapping Dries & Tynan for Wilson & Kaut. That's 2 legit NHL lines after the 4th line

 

[Avsboy]

We might already have the deepest forward group in the league without Wilson. Bednar would have some really tough decisions to make if he was healthy.

I take Wilson, a poor team's second liner, over Nieto and Jost.

 

[Cousin Eddie]

Posted this in the other thread but thought it’d be worthy here too.

Wonder if the “home team” has any control over in game sounds/presentation?

If so it would be pretty cool if Avs fans all across the world made some videos of them singing “All The Small Things”. Love when the fans sing that every game and it always runs into the play. Would be a nice for the players to get a little sense of familiarity in each third period hearing that song and watching Avs fans shout it on the Jumbotron. Could be their rally song on the road to the cup.

 

[Freaky Styley]

Posted this in the other thread but thought it’d be worthy here too.

Wonder if the “home team” has any control over in game sounds/presentation?

If so it would be pretty cool if Avs fans all across the world made some videos of them singing “All The Small Things”. Love when the fans sing that every game and it always runs into the play. Would be a nice for the players to get a little sense of familiarity in each third period hearing that song and watching Avs fans shout it on the Jumbotron. Could be their rally song on the road to the cup.

I hope the NHL marketing department is thinking up creative things like this to get fans involved. As someone who used to work in sport marketing it would be exciting to brainstorm these things. Would be cool if they could some how get the audio from a bunch of fans watching the games and broadcast it in the arena. I'm sure it would do wonders for the players

 

[Freaky Styley]

I take Wilson, a poor team's second liner, over Nieto and Jost.

Me too. I'm just saying not many teams have the luxury of sitting 2 guys like Jost and Nieto when fully healthy.

 

[Cypher]

I think Jost sits, since everyone else in the bottom 6 is a better special teams player, mainly on the PK.
That 34 man roster is only 2.4 mill over the cap.

 

[Avs_19]

I was hoping Kaut would get to practice with the team just to get him some work before next season.

Wilson playing in actual games wasn't going to happen considering in August it'll be around 10 months since he last played. You can't throw him into playoff games after missing that amount of time due to an injury. Jost and Nieto are better options.

 

[Avsboy]

Wilson playing in actual games wasn't going to happen considering in August it'll be around 10 months since he last played. You can't throw him into playoff games after missing that amount of time due to an injury.

Wonder what happened to him. He may have to settle for league minimum, or be out of a job, in the future.

 

[Avs_19]

Wonder what happened to him. He may have to settle for league minimum, or be out of a job, in the future.

We'll probably never know unless Wilson talks about it at some point. All we got was that he tweaked something and then he never played again.