



Avs Record: 1-2-0 this week, 8-2-1 overall (17 points)

Current Standings: 1st in Central, 1st in Western Conference, 4th in the League





1. The big news since last week was the injury to Mikko Rantanen. Rantanen was injured in St. Louis on a strange play where his leg got caught on a soft spot on the ice and just buckled. Its not entirely clear what exactly was injured as the Avs gave their usual “lower body injury” designation. Thankfully it doesn’t appear to be too serious but that could change. Non-contact injury is always a scary term to hear and getting away with a week to week diagnosis is very lucky. Rantanen is the Avs second best player and they can’t wait to get him back in the lineup. Rantanen's injury is going to be the first big test for the Avs this year. Having adversity this early in the season is a good thing in most cases. Given the great start, they have some cushion to work with. If the Avs can maintain a 500 record or close to it without Rantanen they should be just fine.









2. With Rantanen out, a spot has opened up on the top line and on the top power play unit. So far it has been filled by committee with J.T. Compher, Jonas Donskoi, Nazim Kadri, and few others all getting shifts with Mackinnon and Landeskog. Kadri has mostly filled in on the top power play unit and is probably playing his best hockey so far this season. I think we can expect to see this continue since Rantanen isn’t likely out long term.





3. The Avs have an interesting schedule in November. The schedule features 14 total games, 7 at home and 7 on the road. It also features 7 games against teams that made the playoffs last year and 7 teams that did not make the playoffs last year. There is a 5-game road trip mostly in Western Canada (the final game is in Minnesota). I don’t think their schedule really gets any easier so November will be a really good measuring stick for this squad. Hopefully these long road trips can help build a strong team dynamic.









4. Cale Makar has been everything expected and then some. He’s certainly had some growing pains, but he seems to be getting better every game. Saturday’s 5-2 loss to the Ducks may have been his best regular season NHL game. He also finally scored his first regular season goal against Vegas on Friday. What’s impressed me most about him so far is how good he is in the physical aspect of his game. At 20 years old he’s been knocking down seasoned NHL players with regularity. He’s easily a front runner for the Calder already and he's looking to join Gabriel Landeskog, Nathan Mackinnon, and Chris Drury as players who have won the trophy in an Avs sweater. Oh yeah he also has more than the double the point total of Tyson Barrie so far this season (10 for Makar and 4 for Barrie). Not a bad start at all.









5. So we’re almost a month into the season and the ongoing feud between Kroenke Sports and the Cable providers continues to punish the fans who want to watch their Avs on Altitude. Hearing from several people who are around the situation the feeling is that this is going to drag on for quite a while, which is unfortunate. There is some slightly good news: Some companies are working to bring Avs and Nuggets games legally to bars in the Front Range per a Denver Post article on October 25th. It’s a small victory but being able to see the games in public again would be awesome. I think the longer this goes the more customers these broadcasting companies stand to lose in Colorado. Given the reputation of those companies maybe that's not such a bad thing?





Thanks, and see you next week.

Go Avs!