Duchene, O’Reilly Make the Opening Night Roster

The final cuts are in and both of the Avs top 2 draft picks of 2009 have both made the team - at least for opening night.  Weiman, Durno and Peltier were sent down to Lake Erie today, bringing the roster down to 24.  (Tom Preissing is on IR, which means the Avs can carry an extra player.)


First - congrats to both Duchene and O’Reilly.  I’ll be really surprised if Duchene plays in the OHL again - even though he didn’t exactly light it up in the preseason, he’s sound defensively and he’s mature enough to handle the ups and downs.  Plus, he’s one of the few marketable things about this team right now - its good for business to keep him up.  


I thought O’Reilly had a really good chance to make the team after the team didn’t cut him last Saturday.  Unlike Duchene, I don’t think O’Reilly will stay with the club after his 9 games.  I’ll be curious to see how much he’s supposed lack of speed is a factor and how visible he is over this 9 game set.  


Congrats also to Matt Hendricks, who literally fought his way onto this team, starting with the Burgundy / White game all the way through Frozen Fury XII.  The 28 year old made up his mind that he was going to do anything to play in the NHL this preseason - mission accomplished.  


I was a little surprised that Kyle Cumiskey beat out Peltier for the 7th defenseman spot.  Nothing I saw or read about Cumiskey this training camp / preseason led me to believe he deserved the spot, but to be fair 1) Kyle is coming off a pretty serious shoulder injury and 2) I didn’t see or read much about Peltier playing well either.  The big question here is Kyle going to play or ride the bench as a 7th defenseman?  And if he plays, which veteran dman is going to sit?  


Next game counts folks… Go Avs!