The Los Angeles Kings beat the Colorado Avalanche 3-2 in Las Vegas last night. It was the final preseason game for the Avalanche, which means it's also the last one I have to recap without having actually seen. David Jones scored twice for the Avs - his first two goals of the preseason. One of them came on the powerplay - I believe that puts the Avs at 2-41 or so on the preseason. Ryan Smyth scored the game winner for the Kings (of course).
In an interesting move, many of the players in contention for a roster spot watched the game from the press box last night. Ryan Stoa, Mark Olver, Colby Cohen and Jonas Holos were all healthy scratches while only Patrick Bordeleau of Blood dressed. The Avs roster is currently at 27 and 4 players need to be cut to get down to the 23-man limit, but if David Koci and Peter Mueller start the season on IR as expected, only 2 cuts need to be made. Honestly, this race is so tight, I'm not sure you can call it.
Milan Hejduk was also a scratch for the 3rd straight game. There hasn't been anything official on Hejduk that we're aware of; I suspect they are just taking things easy with that knee that kept him out of action for a chunk of last season.
The regular season kicks off on Thursday night with the Avalanche hosting the Chicago Blackhawks in what will be Joel Quenneville's 1000th game as a coach.