Eurolanche

Avs focused on strong start vs. Wild

Season series: The Minnesota Wild won four of the five games against the Colorado Avalanche in 2014-15, including sweeping a home-and-home set to begin the season. Seven Wild players had at least three points, led by Zach Parise's two goals and two assists, and Jonas Brodin's four assists. Colorado had a total of four goals in the five games and was shut out three times, twice by Darcy Kuemper and once by Devan Dubnyk. Zach Redmond and Gabriel Landeskog each had a goal and an assist for the Avalanche.

Avalanche team scope: Colorado hopes to get off to a better start than it did last season, when it was 3-6-2 heading into November. The Avalanche never recovered, finishing last in the Central Division and missing the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

Two seasons ago, the Avalanche went 10-1-0 in October on the way to a division title.

"Two years ago, we were really focused, ready for that first game," coach Patrick Roy said. "Last year, we probably took things for granted instead of being as hungry as we were the [previous year]. That's what I've seen from our group the last few days; we're hungry and worked hard in practice. We want to have a good start. We want to show our fans that we are ready for this year."

Roy said he wasn't ready to declare who his final defenseman would be Thursday. Free agent acquisition Francois Beauchemin is expected to skate with Erik Johnson on the first pair, and Tyson Barrie and Nate Guenin likely will be together on the second pair.

Wild team scope: Before flying to Denver on Wednesday, Minnesota made one final tweak to its roster, sending forward Jordan Schroeder to Iowa of the American Hockey League. Schroeder, who played in 25 games with Minnesota last season, cleared waivers earlier in the day. That paved the way for rookie Tyler Graovac, who played in three NHL games last season, to make the roster. He will center the third line, flanked by Thomas Vanek and Charlie Coyle.

"He's gotten better and he's going to have to keep getting better," coach Mike Yeo said. "The pace of the game picks up and the heaviness of the game picks up, and he's done a good job of adjusting and making sure his game has progressed."

Minnesota's first line of Zach Parise, Mikael Granlund and Jason Pominville remains unchanged from last season, and the second line of Jason Zucker, Mikko Koivu and Nino Niederreiter had a good preseason. Yeo said he hopes his fourth group of Chris Porter, Erik Haula and Ryan Carter can provide energy and momentum.

-- by NHL.com --

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