Altitude Sports will broadcast 69 of the Avalanche’s 82 regular-season games, with the other 13 other games being shown nationally — the maximum allowed under NHL rules.
Colorado’s season-opener Oct. 13 against the Chicago Blackhawks at Ball Arena will air on TNT.
Altitude, which is also the regional provider for the Denver Nuggets, is still not available to Comcast and DISH Network subscribers.
“Comcast and Dish continue to deny thousands of fans across a 10-state region access to their hometown teams for a third straight season — even as fan interest has never been stronger. Altitude remains committed to representing the interests of all our fans”, KSE Chief Operating Officer Matt Hutchings said in a release Friday. “Both Comcast and DISH Network remain steadfast in demanding terms that would put Altitude out of business and in the process, raise prices for our fans to watch their local teams — something we won’t allow.”
Great pace. Led by the top line of Nathan MacKinnon, Gabe Landeskog and Mikko Rantanen, the second of two groups on Friday were much sharper than the first during practice.
Coach Jared Bednar has proof.
“I thought they were flying, and here’s a good indicator: That was the exact same practice, the exact same number of reps for both groups, and that group finished 18 minutes faster than in the group before,” Bednar said. “It’s not just the pace that they’re skating with but their execution — they didn’t have to do things again. They were doing it right the first time. And you get into it, you’re seeing all the right things, you run through three or four reps of each drill for each guy, and then you’re moving on.
“The other group, we had to stop. Their details weren’t as good, they weren’t moving as fast. It just takes longer so I thought these guys (second group), not only were they faster and better from a speed standpoint, but the details were better so they didn’t have to repeat things and was just done right.”
In addition to the MacKinnon line, that group included the top defensive pairing of Cale Makar and Sam Girard, the third line with rookie Alex Newhook between Tyson Jost and J.T Compher, and center Artem Anisimov with rookies Sampo Ranta and Martin Kaut.
The MacKinnon line and Makar/Girard led off every drill.
“A lot of our leaders are out there and when you have Mac, Mikko and Landy out there (using) top-end speed executed perfectly, you really have to be on your game otherwise you’re gonna stick out like a sore thumb,” Bednar said.
Footnotes. Makar continued to practice in a red non-contact jersey for precautionary reasons, and his normal line partner, Devon Toews, continued to skate in red with a skills coach. Toews, who had offseason shoulder surgery, is not cleared to join practice. … Offseason free-agent depth additions Roland McKeown and Stefan Matteau remained off the ice and in COVID-19 protocol after both had positive tests.
