Avs open preseason with a W

The Avs (well half of them anyway) opened up their 2010 preseason schedule tonight with a 3-1 victory over the St. Louis Blues. There was no video feed of the game but thanks to some Blues fan, there was audio for those of us who weren't lucky enough to live in Denver.

The Avs were without their top 2 centers Paul Stastny and Matt Duchene and scoring wingers Milan Hejduk, Chris Stewart and Peter Mueller. They did get a healthy David Jones back after his knee injury last season. Jones contributed in a big way scoring a goal that ended up being the game winner. Rookies Kevin Shattenkirk, Colby Cohen and 2010 5th rounder Luke (sky)Walker made their Avalanche debuts as well. Shattenkirk scored the opening goal and Walker put the Avs up 3-1 just 30 seconds after Jones' goal.

All the offense came against the goalie who shut down Alex Ovechkin and Sidney Crosby in the playoffs last season, Jaroslav Halak. Halak played the whole game and stopped 15 of 18 Av shots. Peter Budaj started the game for the Avs. He played half the game and stopped 9-10 shots while Trevor Cann came in for Budaj and played a very solid game stopping all 24 shots fired on him.

The Avs play again tomorrow night at the Pepsi Center against the Kings. I'd bet good money on Craig Anderson getting his 1st start of the preseason as well as some offensive help of Stastny, Duchene, Hejduk, Stewart and Mueller.