Today was the second day of Avalanche training camp and once again the day consisted of three scrimmages between Team Black, Team Blue, and Team Gray. I thought about taking a different route for today’s article and sharing screen-caps of tweets from people who are attending camp. After a bit of thought that seemed more challenging, and more work, than just writing something up. So I decided to include a few tweets about each game as well as write up a recap of each scrimmage.

Black vs Blue

After wining both of their games yesterday, Black was back on the ice to take on Blue. Black picked up right where they left off yesterday and Brad Malone scored on the opening shift. Black got another puck past Calvin Pickard after a scramble in front of the net to go ahead 2-0. Paul Stastny put Black ahead 3-0 after Joakim Lindstrom showed some great puck possession along the blue line. With about 7:30 remaining, Blue finally got on the board thanks to Ryan O’Reilly, but it wasn’t enough to get his team going and they fell short, losing 3-1.

Semyon Varlamov was in net for Black and looked great in this game against Blue. The only goal he allowed was the top shelf shot by O’Reilly. Here is a video from Adrian Dater featuring his best save on a penalty shot against off-season acquisition Chuck Kobasew.


Courtesy of Adrian Dater.

Here are some notes on this scrimmage from Twitter.

Blue vs Gray

O’Reilly got things rolling a bit earlier than last game and quickly put his team up 1-0 beating Varlamov blocker side. Gray wouldn’t allow Blue to run away with this game and Luke Walker, Kyle Quincey, and Greg Mauldin scored to put Gray up 3-1 over Blue. Mauldin added one more to put the nail in the coffin and lead Gray to the 4-1 victory.

As you know my go to “tweep” for training camp videos thus far has been @DarioinDenver. He chose to watch more of the scrimmages today and didn’t spend a lot of time recording, but one that he posted featured this penalty shot goal by Walker tying the game up at one. The penalty shot begins around the 1:45 mark.


Courtesy of @DarioinDenver.

Gray vs Black

This game shaped up to be a battle between the two goaltenders – Trevor Cann (Gray) and Sami Aittokallio (Black). Black, looking to stay undefeated, got on the board first when Daniel Winnik scored his third goal in four games after Cann was unable to find the loose puck. Gray managed to tie the score on a Troy Rutkowski point shot that was deflected past Aittokallio. That was all the scoring this game would see and as time expired the scoreboard read 1-1.

I want to thank all the great bloggers who were at camp for live tweeting the scrimmages giving people like myself some insight into camp since we can’t be there. Please be sure to check out their blogs and follow them on Twitter for more in-depth analysis from today’s training camp:

Kevin and Ryan from The Avs Guild
Angelique from Colorado Avalanche Prospects
Sean from Anyone but Detroit

It looks like the coaches will have some tough decisions to make for third and fourth line players. I can’t wait to see what happens when cuts start being made. The Burgundy and White game is Tuesday night which usually marks the end of training camp and the beginning of cuts. I expect a good majority of players to be cut some time Wednesday.