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Morning Flurries: can the Colorado Avalanche actually win some games this year?

Colorado wins another preseason tilt, more players speak out about protesting, and the season draws closer

By NotIzzyClarke

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NHL: Preseason-Vegas Golden Knights at Colorado Avalanche Ron Chenoy-USA TODAY Sports

The Colorado Avalanche have put up a scarily acceptable preseason so far.

With their 4-2 victory over the Golden Knights on Thursday night, the Avs managed to split their series with Vegas and Minnesota, sweeping the Stars and going 4-2-0 in the Games That Don’t Actually Count for a nerve-wracking start to the year.

It’s worth being cautiously optimistic at this point, albeit with a few caveats. One of Colorado’s two wins over the Stars was against their prospect roster, while the other was against Ben Bishop (whose style doesn’t exactly lend itself to white-hot starts after a summer off). They lost a game apiece to both the Golden Knights and the Wild, and the Matt Duchene situation still hasn’t been resolved.

Still, it’s always nice to walk away from preseason with a bit of success, so we’ll take it.

NHL: Minnesota Wild at Colorado Avalanche Isaiah J. Downing-USA TODAY Sports

Could Rocco Grimaldi find his way back onto an NHL roster with Colorado this year? [MHH]

The Columbus Blue Jackets reportedly turned down the Matt Duchene trade talks when Colorado wanted Josh Anderson headed back their way. Now, Anderson publicly wants out, just weeks later. [Elliotte Friedman]

Protest talks aren’t going away any time soon, especially with new comments coming out by the POTUS each day. Bruce Arthur talked to the few black players in the NHL about what the fight for racial equality means to them in particular, and they revealed some heartbreaking realities. [Toronto Star]

Does Marc-Edouard Vlasic want to go to the Olympics? We still aren’t sure...

The first goaltender to win an NHL game for the Vegas Golden Knights was Dylan Ferguson, who signed his three-year ELC on Thursday.

Before he ever hit the ice as a member of the Vegas roster, though, he stepped out onto the rink with the Vancouver Canucks. Here’s a look at the cool story behind Vegas’ newest netminder: [InGoal Magazine]

Finally, someone seems to be missing from the NHL’s top 20 save percentage leaders all-time, dating back to 1955 (the newest released available data):

Have you ever wanted to know what makes a goalie tick - what exactly he’s doing in the net that helps him succeed? Here is a great breakdown of Corey Crawford’s playing style and what makes him one of the better goalies in the league. [The Athletic (Free)]