10 09 25 Guerilla Sports Jesse Montano previews the Colorado Avalanche home opener

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
It's the home opener for the Colorado Avalanche as they
hit the ice at Ball Arena tonight, taking on the
Utah Mammoth. The Avs are coming off a four to
one season opening win over the LA Kings on Tuesday
in Los Angeles, joining us live on the KOA Common
Spirit health outline is AVS RID for Guerrilla Sports Jesse Montano, Jesse.
A solid win against the Kings, and I have to admit,
as a Kings fan, I was not pleased to see that,

(00:21):
but it's not surprising coming from a very stacked AVS team.
And we didn't even see, you know, Nathan McKinnon join
in on the scoring party.

Speaker 2 (00:30):
Yeah, it took the Avs, you know, probably about ten
minutes to get going. But no, it was a funnel
in lah.

Speaker 1 (00:36):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (00:37):
No, great to be chat with you guys this morning.
And hey, exciting morning here in Denver. We hit the
home opener down a ball, all right.

Speaker 1 (00:42):
So in goal we know there are two really capable
goalies for the Avs. Scott Wedgwood stepped in on Tuesday,
got the win, only let up one goal. He's a
guy who's been kind of toiling his entire career. He
turned pro in twenty twelve, and you know has been
in the AHL, the ECHL, now the NHL, kind of
a solid backup. But McKenzie Blackwood was out on Tuesday.

(01:04):
Is he going to start in net Where is Scott
Wedgwood back?

Speaker 2 (01:07):
No, It'll likely be Wedgwood again tonight. I'm thinking that
we'll see McKenzie Blackwood probably here within the next week
or so. He had a surgery procedure right after the
season that ended last year in May, and you've just
been rehabing that a bit. We've seen him get back
on the ice. He's rehabbing, he's getting closer. He's been

(01:28):
skating with the team for the last week or so.
But I know I'm expecting to see Wedgwood probably for
both home games here these next couple of days, Tonight
against Utah than Saturday against Dallas. But McKenzie Blackwood definitely
is not far off.

Speaker 1 (01:44):
Who should fans keep an eye on this year as
some more you know, kind of those underrated players. Again,
we know there are MVP level caliber players on this team,
and you know Natus is a great goal scorer, had
two on Tuesday. Who's going to step up this year
and maybe come up from the third line and move
up to the second and kind of lead this team
as they try to make a run to another Stanley Cup.

Speaker 2 (02:07):
Yeah, I'm going to give you two names here, one
on one on offense, one on defense. For me, up front,
it's gonna be Ross Colton, and he's exactly what you
just said. He's gonna be playing on that third line.
He's gonna have a little bit more stability this year
than maybe he did last year. But we saw him
last year with some of the injuries that cropped up
for the Abs, he was able to move up the

(02:29):
line of a bit and was wildly effective. Got off
to a really strong start to the season last year,
was scoring goals, picking up points. He suffered a little
bit of an injury took him out of the lineup,
and then he just They really struggled to get Ross
Coulton consistent line mates, a consistent role. He's a guy
this year with some you know, stability, I think could

(02:50):
have a really big impact for the Avs. And then
on the back end, it's Brent Burns, twenty two year
veteran newcomer to the team has been a pain in
the ABS side for all twenty two years of his career.
But now you know with the ABS, he just gives
them something a little bit different on defense than they had.
You know, big guy can contribute offensively. He's someone that

(03:15):
I think, you know, just a million dollar cap hit
this year, could maybe kind of be a quiet player
that surprises a lot of ABS fans here. He's got
a really good camp and like I said, he's stuck
around in the league for twenty two years and he's
still effective. So he does something right. But Ross, Coleen,
Brent Burns, those are my answers.

Speaker 1 (03:35):
For you quickly here any prediction for this season. I
know everyone in Denver wants to see another parade through downtown,
but does it feel like that type of year?

Speaker 2 (03:47):
You know, I'll put it to you this way. We
were talking up in the press box a few days ago,
and pretty much the consensus among US media is if
you're not going to the Western Conference finals or really
the Stanley Cup Finals, this is going to be a
disappointing year. This is the best team they've had since
twenty twenty two, and they've got it coming out of

(04:07):
the gate. So this team's going to have a full
season to Joe and then any tweaks they make in
the deadline will only help. But this is a really
good team with some really high expectations, especially now that
Gabe Lamb Discogi's back.

Speaker 1 (04:20):
That's avs Rid for Gorilla Sports. Jess Montano, thank you
for joining us as the ABS get ready to open
the season at home tonight