The first day of training camp is in the books. Similar to years past the first day of camp consisted of scrimmages. The players were split up into three teams, Black, Blue, and Gray, each of which participated in two scrimmages a piece.

Colorado and Lake Erie coaches got together to create the lines for the teams and the combinations are a bit interesting. The black teams top line is Joakim Lindstrom, Paul Stastny, and David Jones. Cody McLeod and Daniel Winnik are playing wings on the second line with Brad Malone centering. Erik Johnson and Jan Hejda make up the top defensive pair while Matt Hunwick was playing alongside Stefan Elliott.

On the gray team, Matt Duchene is sandwiched between two right-handed shots in Peter Mueller, who was playing left-wing, and Milan Hejduk. T.J. Galiardi, Mark Olver, and Brandon Yip made up the second line. On defense the gray team saw Kyle Quincey paired with Ryan Wilson and Duncan Siemens with Jonas Holos. The last team is made up Ryan Stoa, Ryan O’Reilly, and Chuck Kobasew followed by a line featuring first round draft pick Gabriel Landeskog playing alongside Jay McClement – Kevin Porter is the other winger. The top defensive pairing for the blue team is Shane O’Brien/Tyson Barrie, followed by Kyle Cumiskey with Ryan O’Byrne.

Any players not listed are any a minor league bound third line.

Black vs Gray

The teams wasted no time getting back into the contact aspect of this great sport and bodies were falling left and right. At one point during the scrimmage, Ryan Wilson lined up Justin Mercier as he skated through the neutral zone. Mercier saw him at the last second and Wilson ended up taking the worst of it. Wilson left momentarily, but later returned.


Courtesy of All Things Avs.

Cody McLeod and David Jones scored for black en route to a 2-0 victory. Trevor Cann was in net for the black team and turned away every shot he faced. Here is some more footage from the first scrimmage including a nice dangle by Elliott right near the beginning.


Courtesy of @DarioinDenver.

Blue vs Black

Team black didn’t have much time to bask in the glory of winning their first scrimmage of training camp. After a short 15 minute break while the ice was resurfaced the boys in black took to the ice to face-off against Landeskog and his cohorts in Blue. Paul Stastny got the black team out to a quick 1-0 lead, which was quickly answered by Ryan O’Byrne. Winnik netted two goals for Black less than a minute apart putting his team up 3-1. The fourth goal was an absolute snipe by Evan Brophey. He fired the puck from the top of the circle over the right shoulder of either Calvin Pickard or Sami Aittokallio. I have no idea which one is in net.


Courtesy of @DarioninDenver

That proved to be the game winning goal as team Black skated to a 5-3 victory over Blue. The insurance goal was scored by defenseman Stefan Elliott. Here is some more video of that scrimmage.


Courtesy of @DarioinDenver.

Gray vs Blue

Team Gray came out flying and was all over Blue to begin the final scrimmage of the day.


Courtesy of @DarioinDenver.

However, it was Blue who jumped out to a 3-0 lead on goals from Garrett Meurs, Ryan O’Reilly, and Gabriel Landeskog. Wilson tried to jump-start his team by cutting the lead to two on a shot from the high slot, but Blue answered right back. Landeskog notched his second of the contest increasing the lead to three once again. Galiardi and Patrick Bordeleau managed to cut the lead to one goal, but Blue was able to hang on for the 4-3 victory.

Following the days scrimmages head coach Joe Sacco held a press conference for media. He was happy with the pace of the games, but the third one slowed down near the end “which is to be expected”. Sacco also went on to say he though Mueller and Cumiskey looked great for missing so much time last season due to injuries. He was also happy with the way goaltenders Varlamov and Jean-Sebastien Gigeure played. Here is the full press conference.


Courtesy of the NHL.

Notes

Landeskog left the first scrimmage after blocking a shot with his knee, but returned soon after. It appeared as if it stung a little and he just had to walk it off. You may have noticed that off-season acusition Cedrick Desjardins was missing from the game summaries above. He is dealing with a shoulder injury and will not be participating in camp. Hopefully he will be healed and all ready to go when the AHL season starts. Training camp continues tomorrow and Monday at the Family Sports Center.