Alexandar Georgiev and a handful of players participated in an optional practice after a dominant 8-2 win over the Anaheim Ducks.
The Colorado Avalanche shifted momentum after losing to the St. Louis Blues on Saturday and are trying to keep it going. The energy the team played with in the 8-2 win against the Anaheim Ducks was noticeable.
"Getting our confidence back — finding ways to play the right hockey game even when we're losing. Stick with the game and not feel like we have to run around and try and do something," Alexandar Georgiev said after an optional practice on Thursday. "We play our game 60 minutes — think we have a really, really good chance to win games."
Although it was an optional practice, Georgiev was on the ice working with goaltending coach Jussi Parkkila and other players, including Kurtis MacDermid, Samuel Girard, Caleb Jones, Joel Kiviranta, Nathan MacKinnon and Jonathan Drouin.
Georgiev only faced 17 shots on goal but attributed that to his team. He said he tries to focus on the positives of each game and build on that.
"We tried to have good habits and not feel relaxed in the third — keep attacking, keep playing our game," Georgiev said. "I don't think I had many shots on me in the third period or the first, so we did a good job at that."
Head coach Jared Bednar said he wanted a heavy practice Thursday but after talking to his players, decided to make it optional and give some of them the option to rest and reset.
"It's not always physical, it can be mental too," Bednar said. "So we kind of adjusted the schedule."
While a handful of players were on the ice, others were in the gym working out or in the video room watching clips, Bednar said.
"I think you've always got to listen. Our players aren't scared of the work, so I think we got to listen to them a little bit," Bednar said. "I'd rather have one good practice as a whole out of these two days and do some specialty work — so we'll get that out of these two days regardless of how we flip flop them."