The Avalanche opened its 23rd season with a 4-1 victory over the Minnesota Wild on Thursday at the Pepsi Center. Game story is here. Primary observation after having some time to think about it: Based on minutes, Carl Soderberg’s line is again Colorado’s second line, and the Avs D is so deep everyone logged at least 19 minutes except Nikita Zadorov, who was at 16:25.
Soderberg, who had a goal and an assist, logged 16:33, which was fourth among forwards, and only trailing the top line of Nathan MacKinnon (22:32), Gabe Landeskog (21:43) and Mikko Rantanen (19:59).