Avalanche president and governor Josh Kroenke said he is optimistic that Colorado’s 20th anniversary season in 2015-16 will include hosting the Winter Classic or NHL Stadium Series game.

“We have been working hard with the league and pushing the league quite hard to get an outdoor game,” Kroenke said. “We hope to get a positive answer on that in the very near future. That’s something that could be a distinct possibility for us, especially coinciding with the 20-year anniversary.”

A stadium game would be played at Denver’s Coors Field, Sports Authority Field at Mile High or Folsom Field in Boulder, but Kroenke declined to speculate which venue is the leading candidate. He said having a college hockey game would be a natural fit for the event, as is the case with most Winter Classics or NHL Stadium Series.

The Avs open this season — Year 2 of the Joe Sakic/Patrick Roy era — Thursday at Minnesota. On Tuesday Kroenke sat between the two Hall of Famers at a news conference.

Kroenke doubts the Avs will match the 112 points and Central Division title they amassed last season but expects the team to be better prepared for the playoffs, where they were ousted in the first round.

“My family is very excited about the growth that we saw our hockey club take last season, and we’re excited to keep building on it,” Kroenke said. “We’re excited to play some real games to where they actually count. After talking to these guys (Sakic and Roy), they’re pleased with what they saw at different times. While our record didn’t show it (1-5-2 in exhibition games), certain players took steps towards being better overall players.”

Roy’s top two lines Tuesday again had center Matt Duchene with veteran wingers Alex Tanguay and Jarome Iginla, and with Ryan O’Reilly between Gabe Landeskog and Nathan MacKinnon. Those combinations were formed during Saturday’s 3-2 shootout victory against the Los Angeles Kings in Las Vegas.

“That’s how we’re going to start Thursday, but don’t be surprised, we’re going to try a lot of things,” Roy said. “There’s so much talent, so much possibility with this group. We’re going to try (different combinations) for sure.”

The Avs were outscored 22-10 in regulation and overtime in the preseason, but Sakic said that statistic should not be alarming.

“I was very happy with the way the guys played in the preseason. We didn’t play bad. Our record maybe doesn’t show it, but for the most part the guys had a good camp,” Sakic said. “We had trouble at times scoring goals, but the scoring chances were there, and with the guys we have on our team I’m not worried about goal scoring.”

One of Sakic’s primary goals during the offseason was to improve depth at forward and that has paid off. Center/wing John Mitchell has been plagued with migraines and hasn’t played an exhibition game, and forward Jesse Winchester is recovering from a concussion. Fourth-line enforcer Patrick Bordeleau had offseason back surgery.

Yet, the current third and fourth lines prove this is a competitive group of forwards.

“When we have our full lineup together, we see a lot of good possibilities, and like Patrick said, there’s a lot of different line combinations you can come up with,” Sakic said.

Mike Chambers: mchambers@denverpost.com or twitter.com/mikechambers