The Colorado Avalanche skated Sunday like a team briefly freed from consequence, where laughter carried farther than urgency and the Western Conference Final felt, for a moment, distant instead of imminent.
A Locker Room Lightened By Opportunity And Health
With Game 1 of the Western Conference Final set for Wednesday at Ball Arena, Colorado used Sunday’s practice as both a reset and a reward for surviving a demanding path through the first two rounds.
Some of that ease was earned through momentum. Some of it was manufactured. And some of it, frankly, came from simply getting bodies back.
Sam Malinski returned as a full participant after missing the previous two games, while Josh Manson also rejoined the session, offering a subtle but important stabilizing presence on the blue line. At the same time, Cale Makar, Brent Burns, and Artturi Lehkonen remained absent for a second consecutive day, though head coach Jared Bednar stressed that all three remain trending toward availability for Game 1.
The result was a practice environment that felt less like a tension build-up and more like a collective exhale.
“It should be fun this time of year,” Bednar said. “It’s really the reason we play. Nobody is playing for the 82-game grind. They are playing for the playoffs.”
Controlled Breathing In A High-Stakes Stretch
Colorado’s path to this moment has created an unusual rhythm. After sweeping Los Angeles and eliminating Minnesota in five games, the Avalanche earned their second extended break of the postseason — a rare luxury in a grind that typically allows none.
Two days off followed Game 5, then back-to-back practices on Saturday and Sunday before a scheduled off day Monday and a final tune-up Tuesday. Within that structure, Sunday’s skate felt almost intentionally lighter, as if Bednar understood the importance of not letting the weight of expectation fully settle too early.
That balance — between sharpness and release — has become a recurring theme inside the room.
Veteran forward Nazem Kadri described it as a necessary mental oscillation, particularly at this stage of the postseason where emotional fatigue can creep in as quietly as physical wear.
“Those days you aren’t playing are really important to try to detach as much as possible,” Kadri said, “and then when the time comes, dial your focus back in.”
Bednar echoed that sentiment from a broader perspective, pointing to the intensity gap between October rhythms and May reality.
“It would be hard to get a practice like this in November or January,” he said. “With that type of juice and excitement, this time of year is different.”
The Mental Tax Of Surviving Deep Into May
Even with a Presidents’ Trophy and an 8–1 postseason record, there is no sense inside the Avalanche room that anything has been straightforward. If anything, the deeper they go, the more mentally consuming the journey becomes.
Defenseman Brock Nelson captured that tension without hesitation, describing the emotional volatility that defines this stage of the playoffs.
“The stakes are so high,” Nelson told DNVR. “The emotion swings, the adrenaline swings — it feels like the highest it can get. You just can’t get too caught up in it. You need a short memory and a fresh mindset every day.”
That “short memory” has become essential currency for a team that has largely controlled games but still understands how quickly control can evaporate in postseason hockey.
Bednar, meanwhile, refused to let external perception soften the internal reality. Even dominant playoff runs, he noted, carry a constant edge that rarely shows up in box scores.
He pointed back to Colorado’s 2022 championship run as a reference point for how deceptive results can be.
“It felt like every game was a must-win,” Bednar said. “People see 16-4 and think it was easy. It wasn’t. When you’re in it, it feels like survival every night.”
That disconnect — between perception and experience — is precisely what the Avalanche are trying to manage now. The record says dominance. The room feels something far more fragile.
And that is why Sunday’s practice mattered less as preparation and more as calibration: a reminder that even at this stage, the season is still alive, still unfinished, and still capable of turning on the smallest emotional or physical shift.
For Colorado, the challenge now is simple in theory but unforgiving in execution — carry the lightness without losing the edge, and step into Vegas without letting either disappear.
Game 1 is Wednesday, May 20, at Ball Arena. Coverage begins at 6 p.m. local time.
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