The Colorado Avalanche already have their ticket to the Stanley Cup Final, but rather than analyzing the Eastern Final and their two potential opponents, some players preferred to take advantage of this break to regain their strength.
• To read also: Rafaël Harvey-Pinard: a happy seventh-round choice
• Read also: A mural by Maurice Richard will be restored
• Read also: The Avalanche rub their hands
"I think our guys are ready and we're excited, but we're enjoying the rest too," defenseman Devon Toews said, according to comments reported by the official National Hockey League (NHL) website. You can't expect a set number of days off before playing again, so we'll take it one day at a time. We use these days to recover and reset.”
The list of damaged players is long in Jared Bednar's squad. In addition to Nazem Kadri and Andrew Cogliano, both recently operated on one hand, Gabriel Landeskog, Andre Burakovsky, Josh Manson and Toews also have a few sores. The latter have also benefited from a few days of treatment this week. If Manson was still missing, the other three were back on the ice on Friday.
According to Toews, this break of eight or 11 days – depending on whether or not the New York Rangers hold a seventh game with the Tampa Bay Lightning – before the first meeting of the final in Denver is certainly beneficial to heal some wounds. .
“It was not bad, launched the defender on Friday, about the session of the day. I thought our guys were quite connected. We did five-on-five drills that we didn't do [Thursday].
While cooking dinner...
With the Stanley Cup on the line in their next series, it would be easy to believe Avalanche players were gathering to watch every play of every game between the Lightning and Rangers. However, it is not. At least not for Toews.
Admittedly, the defender tunes into the channel broadcasting the matches when they take place, but he does not pay too much attention to it.
"I know I'm not paying too much attention," Toews said. It's usually just in the background while I cook supper. I think most guys are listening, at least. I don't know how much the guys care about it, and we'll analyze it in depth when we know who we're playing against."
