{"id":375139,"date":"2025-12-29T02:16:09","date_gmt":"2025-12-29T02:16:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/375139\/"},"modified":"2025-12-29T02:16:09","modified_gmt":"2025-12-29T02:16:09","slug":"avalanche-practice-why-bednar-started-wedgewood-third-line-shakeup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/375139\/","title":{"rendered":"Avalanche Practice: Why Bednar Started Wedgewood; Third Line Shakeup"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Despite flying into Vegas the same day, and playing all the way through overtime and into a shootout, the Avalanche still had a full-team practice on Sunday at Family Sports. Everyone was accounted for except for Cale Makar, who had a maintenance day.<\/p>\n<p>READ MORE: <a href=\"https:\/\/coloradohockeynow.com\/2025\/12\/28\/10-takeaways-the-avalanche-survived-their-mistakes\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">10 Takeaways: The Avalanche Survived Their Mistakes<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Why Wedgewood Got the Nod<\/p>\n<p>Scott Wedgewood got the nod in goal despite starting on Tuesday at Ball Arena. This was the first time that head coach Jared Bednar strayed away from alternating his goalies when both are healthy. At first glance, it felt like a sure bet that Mackenzie Blackwood would start. But Bednar had his reasons for why that wasn\u2019t the case.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe\u2019s a journeyman. Not the Blacky\u2019s not, but I think Wedge, he\u2019s a guy that you can put in cold, not much practice, he\u2019s going to give you everything he\u2019s got,\u201d Bednar said. \u201cHe\u2019s had success doing that throughout the course of his career for longer than Blacky. And I just felt like it was the right decision to go with a guy that\u2019s a little bit more used to that sort of scenario, especially the way he\u2019s played for us this year.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Bednar concluded by saying he\u2019ll be going to Blackwood more often. The Avs host the L.A. Kings and St. Louis Blues on Monday and Wednesday before playing back to back next weekend.<\/p>\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Wedgewood is breaking in new burgundy pads at practice today <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/G9XYEDrGvn\" rel=\"nofollow\">pic.twitter.com\/G9XYEDrGvn<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Aarif Deen (@runwriteAarif) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/runwriteAarif\/status\/2005356072497017063?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">December 28, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Third Line Shakeup<\/p>\n<p>The Ross Colton experiment at center is over, at least for now. At Sunday\u2019s practice, the Avs went back to Jack Drury as the 3C between Victor Olofsson and Colton. Gavin Brindley was demoted to the fourth line, joining winger Joel Kiviranta with Parker Kelly shifting to center.<\/p>\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Avs forward lines at a well attended optional practice:<\/p>\n<p>Landeskog \u2013 MacKinnon \u2013 Necas<br \/>Nichushkin \u2013 Nelson \u2013 Lehkonen<br \/>Colton \u2013 Drury \u2013 Olofsson<br \/>Kiviranta \u2013 Kelly \u2013 Brindley<br \/>Bardakov<\/p>\n<p>Looks like the Colton center experience is over for now. Makar is only dman absent from skate<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Aarif Deen (@runwriteAarif) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/runwriteAarif\/status\/2005357101326205038?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">December 28, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n<p>The Avs have a clear need for one more center and Bednar knows that. But Colton was finally being utilized appropriately as a winger and the shift to center didn\u2019t do his game any good.<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019d expect a bounceback for Colton back in his natural position. His game is best suited on the wing with a defensively responsible centerman.<\/p>\n<p>READ MORE:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/coloradohockeynow.com\/2025\/12\/27\/postgame-wrap-avalanche-rally-repeatedly-top-golden-knights-6-5-in-shootout\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Postgame Wrap: Avalanche Rally Repeatedly, Top Golden Knights 6-5 in Shootout<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Logan O\u2019Connor<\/p>\n<p>Still no update from Bednar on the status of Logan O\u2019Connor. The forward hasn\u2019t played all season and it\u2019s unclear, as of now, when he\u2019ll be able to get in the lineup.<\/p>\n<p>Zakhar Bardakov was the extra forward as usual on Sunday. He got reps in with the fourth line.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.paypal.com\/paypalme\/colhockeynow\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/CHNS-Tip-Jar.png\" alt=\"Contribute to CHN's travel and support local journalism!\" loading=\"lazy\"\/><br \/>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Despite flying into Vegas the same day, and playing all the way through overtime and into a shootout,&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":375140,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[1222,1223,831,82033,64730,385,12704,84076,99,76644],"class_list":{"0":"post-375139","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl","8":"tag-avalanche","9":"tag-colorado-avalanche","10":"tag-featured","11":"tag-jack-drury","12":"tag-logan-oconnor","13":"tag-nhl","14":"tag-ross-colton","15":"tag-scott-wedgewood","16":"tag-sports","17":"tag-zakhar-bardakov"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/375139","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=375139"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/375139\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/375140"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=375139"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=375139"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=375139"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}