Avalanche players maintained offseason conditioning in different ways.
The Colorado Avalanche opened training camp on Thursday with fresh legs ready to get back at it. Players took time to rest and recover in the offseason but maintained training for the upcoming 2024-25 season.
"It was more of a recovery summer for me. Definitely want to do more than I did. Hopefully I'm decent this year," Nathan MacKinnon said at media day on Wednesday. "It's just a lot of miles on the body every season. So I'm just trying to take some off as best as I can. Definitely doing things every day, just not super intense, and putting more miles on the body than I need to. So, yeah, just trying to be smarter."
Miles Wood and Ross Colton picked up where they left off last season and welcomed back their linemate, Logan O'Connor, who missed the end of the regular season and playoffs due to hip surgery. Colton said he didn't change his conditioning in the offseason and hit the ice with high energy for day one.
"I kind of just stick with the same routine. I mean we had a little bit longer summer that we would have hoped for, so definitely took some time off, just get the body right," Colton said. "Just same stuff, working with same trainer, and managing the body, and doing a good job doing whatever you need to do to be ready to go."
It was a longer summer than Mikko Rantanen would have liked as well, but he managed to keep himself healthy and well-conditioned.
"Felt like a long summer, obviously nice to be back. Wish it was a little bit shorter summer, how the games went but it is what it is, now we have more time to get ready for season," Rantanen said. "Feel great, body feels good. Didn't change too much but tried to be smart and stay healthy all summer that way build the body for another long season, which it's going to be, so feel good."
It is difficult to make assumptions from the first day of training camp but all the players came into it with energy and excitement after some rest this summer.
