The Colorado Avalanche open in Los Angeles against the Kings and remain on the road for the first week of the season. And the team is excited about that.
It's been six years since the Colorado Avalanche last started the season on the road, but most of the players are excited about it.
On Wednesday, the puck drops at the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles at 8 p.m. MT. The Avalanche then face off against the San Jose Sharks on Saturday, and the Seattle Kraken next Tuesday. The Kings and Kraken matchups are their home openers, which doesn't really make a difference for some of the Avs players.
"I think you prepare every game same way," Mikko Rantanen said after Tuesday's practice before the team flew to L.A. "Obviously you're a little bit more excited for the start of the year and it's always fun to play on other teams' home opener — they're fired up and the crowd is fired up. Should be good games, I'm excited."
This is Rantanen's eighth season in the NHL — all with the Avalanche — so it's only the second time he's started on the road. But he said it's a good thing with all the new guys to get some team bonding in right off the bat to build chemistry.
"I think we're fine getting on the road. I think we're exited for it — it's going to be good for our team to kind of gel and bond together on the road," Devon Toews said after Monday's practice at Ball Arena. "A lot of road games to start the season for us, and we're fine with that. We love playing in front of our fans as well but you gotta play 41 games on the road and 41 at home so it's important to get those road wins."
Nathan MacKinnon said it's good to have more time together, but he thinks the team has gelled really fast already which is an advantage to build that chemistry. And most of his teammates agree.
"I like starting on the road personally, to be honest, to meet the guys and have some bonding together, figuring some things out," Jonathan Drouin said after Monday's practice. "Then you come back home, you have a couple of games under you before the home opener."
Alexandar Georgiev said it didn't really matter for him to start on the road and that the team has to be able to play in any situation. He's just glad it's not like preseason when they flew in the same day as the game and flew out afterward.
"I don't mind going out right away out of the gate. Guys spent a lot of time together in camp, but it's at work and it's at home, you're going home afterwards, some guys going to hotels," head coach Jared Bednar said about starting on the road. "Now it's everyone's together, they got all the meals together, they spend a lot of time together. I think that can kind of speed up the gelling process."
One issue for the opposing team at home openers is the extended time spent for ceremonial things.
"The worst part is just the stuff that goes on at the start of the game, like the introductions and stuff," Bowen Byram said after Tuesday's practice. "It makes the game take a little longer to get going, which is kind of frustrating but other than that not much, just approach it like any other game."
For Cale Makar, this is his first time starting on the road and he said it's a "weird" start — play a game, then two days off, play another game then two days off before the last one in Seattle and coming home.
"It's gonna be tough games, every single one obviously every team is gonna come out hot," Makar said after Monday's practice. "I think for us it's just gonna be a challenge. I think we'll really face some heavy tests here with these first three and knowing that those teams are going to come out really hot out of the gate. I think this team will step up to those challenges — it's just going to be how often we can do it and if we can stay consistent with it."
Although this is only the beginning of the season, The Hockey News' projection tool ranked the Avalanche atop the Central Division. It'll be a testament to the Avs' stamina if they grab a few road wins from strong teams to kick off the season.