It’s been 127 days since the Colorado Avalanche last played meaningful hockey, but their long-awaited return is finally here as they welcome the Los Angeles Kings to Ball Arena in Downtown Denver for regular-season game one, fresh off a Jared Bednar contract extension!
Colorado Avalanche: 0-0-0
The Opponent: Los Angeles Kings (0-0-0)
Time: 8:00 p.m. MT
Watch: TNT, truTV, HBO MAX
Listen: Altitude Sports Radio, 92.5 FM
Colorado Avalanche
It’s an exciting time of year for every fanbase, and with another year of Stanley Cup aspirations, Colorado Avalanche
fans enter the season with anticipation and expectation, hoping they can get closer to a fourth cup than they did last season.
With Logan O’Connor and Zachary L’Heureux listed on IR, we will see the Avalanche in their 11-7 form on opening night. Noah Juulsen will slot in as the 7th d-man.
Cale Makar will also be under a watchful eye this evening, as he spent part of the summer and training camp on rehab skates and played only one preseason game. Marc Moser of Altitude Sports endeeringly referred to Cale’s ailment as “a tweaky tweaky thing,” and didn’t sound worried about his status while talking with the Sirius XM NHL crew.
We will get a look at MacKenzie Blackwood as the opening-night starter this season after he missed a good portion of last year’s campaign while rehabbing from offseason surgery. All word points to Blackwood having a breakout season and solidifying himself as the bona fide starter over Scott Wedgewood, who carried the load last season.
Youngster T.J. Hughes has officially extended his excellent performance in Loveland into a great camp and NHL debut for the Avalanche. It’s rumored Hughes could get PP1 time early in the season after getting a look with the unit in practice.
Projected Lineup:
Artturi Lehkonen — Nathan MacKinnon — Martin Necas
Gabriel Landeskog — Brock Nelson — Nazem Kadri
Jaden Schwartz — Fedor Svechkov — T.J. Hughes
Parker Kelly — Nicolas Roy
Devon Toews — Cale Makar
Brett Kulak — Sam Malinski
Josh Manson — Brent Burns
Noah Juulsen
MacKenzie Blackwood
Scott Wedgewood
Los Angeles Kings
It’s a bit ironic that the Avalanche and Kings meet to start the season, as the Avalanche dispatched the Kings in a four-game sweep during the first round of the 2025-26 playoffs. LA struggled to put the puck in the back of the net last year and hopes they addressed that in the offseason by adding forwards Mats Zuccarello, Erik Haula, and Scott Laughton.
It did feel like if LA had scoring touch last postseason, they could have put up a stronger fight against the Avalanche, as the “we’re right there” quotes came about after the sweep, so let’s see if their efforts to improve in that regard come to fruition.
Projected Lineup:
Artemi Panarin — Quinton Byfield — Adrian Kempe
Mats Zuccarello — Alex Turcotte — Alex Laferriere
Trevor Moore — Scott Laughton — Erik Haula
Andre Lee — Samuel Helenius — Joel Armia
Erik Gustafsson — Brandt Clarke
Brian Dumoulin — Drew Doughty
Mikey Anderson — Cody Ceci
Darcy Kuemper
Anton Forsberg
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