Morning Flurries: Nazem Kadri reflects on his first game in Burgundy and Blue

The Avs

Nazem Kadri spoke about his first game with the Colorado Avalanche on NHL dot com. He spoke about the shock of a world so different from the one in Toronto that he spent nine seasons in. Despite the challenges of new surroundings, he was quite pleased with his debut by the end. [NHL dot com]

“I was actually OK, I think I’ve been around long enough to know how to handle it,” he said of how his first game with a new club went. “Certainly a little anxious, just wanted to get to puck drop and get the first couple shifts under my belt. Overall, I think it went really well.”

SuckMyAvs (whose name makes me laugh every time I see it) wrote a fanpost on the Seattle Hockey Team expansion draft. [Mile High Hockey]

When I look at my projections for the roster, how the team satisfies all of the exposure requirements actually gets a little bit challenging to predict. I would expect the team to churn the roster so that guys who will potentially play a good size role this season (Wilson, Nichushkin, Bellemare, Nieto, Cole, and maybe even Zadorov) won’t be around when June 2021 rolls around. Thus, the crop of players that potentially satisfy all of the above becomes a little thin and an ill-timed injury could throw a wrench in things. The last thing the team needs is for only Girard, Makar, and Johnson to meet the requirements for defensemen and be forced to expose one of them, so they must be a little careful when it comes to an action like trading Zadorov or cycling through too many players in favor of call ups.

The Avalanche released an October puppy calendar! There are both desktop and mobile versions available. First month is with Sam Girard!

Paging Lauren...

The Prospects

Scott wrote a great piece on the expectations that have begun to follow the Colorado Eagles over the summer. They have a good team with a lot of depth as well as talented young prospects. It’s sometimes easy to hide in the AHL, but mediocrity doesn’t help anyone. [Mile High Hockey]

“Calder Cup, for sure,” A.J. Greer said before I had finished asking the question. “Definitely Calder Cup. We have NHL D-men, we have forwards that are a good mix of rookies and vets; and the vets have played a long time in the NHL. And then you got guys like T.J. Tynan, (Jayson) Megna, OC (Logan O’Connor) — you know, all guys that can put up points, so I’m excited. We have the potential to do really special things this year.”

Also from the AHL, all our sister sites from SB Nation came together and collaborated on a full AHL season preview (opening night was last night). Check out some top notch analysis for all 31 teams, including the Eagles. This is a really good resource to learn about the competition Colorado’s prospects will be playing against, as well as learning about depth and rising stars on other teams. I hope everyone takes advantage of it.

The League

I think Blake Coleman scored the goal of the season on day three of 180. The power and strength to get on the inside, the wrist movement and hand-eye to flip the puck up and right to the top corner. Seriously, wow.

And a second angle.

And the full play just for good measure.

Also in highlight reel moments, the OHL!

Glove taps to Jon Lee-Olsen. We are so proud of you!