Morning Flurries: Erik Johnson could be back earlier than we thought for the Colorado Avalanche

The Avalanche

The Colorado Avalanche kicked off the new school year with an informal skate with about 15 of their players and prospects. via Ryan S. Clark, the names of attendees were as follows: Gabriel Landeskog, J.T. Compher, Andre Burakovsky, Samuel Girard, Cale Makar, Erik Johnson, Nikita Zadorov, Shane Bowers, Martin Kaut, Logan O’Connor, Bowen Byram, Conor Timmins, and Philipp Grubauer,

Wait, back it up, Erik Johnson was skating? That’s impressive. Maybe the timeline for his return has been pushed back from December. No sign of Ian Cole, though, so his recovery situation likely hasn’t changed for the better.

The Avalanche are one of the six teams playing in the Anaheim Rookie Faceoff tournament starting this weekend. You can watch the games live on Facebook through the link in the tweet. The roster can be found here.

The “Big Three” TV networks have joined forces and have been working to take away Altitude Sports from their main cable subscriptions. Matt Hutchings, President of Altitude Sports outlines the whole situation from his side here.

Furthermore on the TV front, here’s a nice visual of all the national games the Avalanche will be playing in across the US. 12 is definitely an increase from last year.

Andy Vernier looks back at last season for Sheldon Dries and looks forward to see if the jump to the NHL is possible for the young center. He’s got one NHL goal, hopefully there’s some more in him that we can all get excited about. [NHL dot com]

Although the goal wasn’t the prettiest, it showed Dries’ ability to get in front of the net and into traffic. During the play, Alexander Kerfoot gathered the puck on the blueline, gave a saucer pass over the stick of the defender to Tyson Barrie who began working his was along the boards. As soon as Barrie received the pass, Dries worked his way in between the defender and the goalie. When Barrie reached the top of the circle, he fired a shot towards the net where Dries was able to deflect the puck off of the defender’s skate and into the net.

Around the Game

Tyson Barrie is now just somebody that we used to know. But now he’s in Toronto and spoke to the media about how he’s settling in with the team and how he gets on with his new defense partner. [TSN]

Also, apparently the Toronto media is a little slow on the uptake regarding Alexander Kerfoot’s name. How many times do we have to say it? It’s not Alex!

Thank you, Lauren.

In goalie news, Cat had a great piece in InGoal Magazine on Sergei Bobrovsky and his training regimen that got him into the form he’s in today. [InGoal Magazine]

Bobrovsky’s performance also improved with his health; after falling below league-average with a .908 save percentage in 2015-16, he rebounded with a .931 save percentage and won his second Vezina Trophy as the NHL’s best goaltender in 2016-17.

The Seattle Whatevers have made another signing, hiring Rick Olyczk to be their Assistant General Manager. Olyczk was a scout for the Maple Leafs (we think Europe?) this past season after serving as AGM for both the Edmonton Oilers and then the Carolina Hurricanes going back over a decade.

Patrick Williams has his ear to the ground when it comes to this current AHL collective bargaining agreement between the players and the league. League president and CEO Dave Andrews has been very positive and hopeful in his statements on the situation.

And finally, the Grand Rapids Griffins did a jersey design contest and Jurassic Park won! The jerseys will be worn on 90’s Night at the end of February.