DENVER (AP) — Most of the Colorado Avalanche's players returned to the ice for practice Saturday after a two-day break.
Emphasis on most.
Noticeably missing were defensemen Cale Makar and Brent Burns, along with forward Artturi Lehkonen. There to warm up before heading to the locker room was defenseman Josh Manson, while fellow blueliner Sam Malinski participated in a red, no-contact sweater.
The Avalanche emerged from their second-round series with Minnesota with their share of bumps and bruises. That's why this hiatus between series — six full days of practice/rest — was welcome. The Presidents' Trophy-winning Avalanche don't kick off the Western Conference final against Vegas until Wednesday night.
“They’re all dealing with stuff in their day-to-day,” Avalanche coach Jared Bednar explained of Makar, Burns, Manson and Lehkonen.
Expected to be back at practice soon?
“Yeah," Bednar responded. “I think some of them will practice in the time we have.”
Lehkonen and Malinski both are dealing with upper-body injuries and didn't play in the final two games of the Minnesota series. Manson has been dealing with an upper-body ailment, while Makar, a Norris Trophy finalist, left the ice after a collision late in Game 5, only to return as Colorado won 4-3 in overtime. Burns is, well, 41 years old.
“It's good,” Jack Drury said about the break, “for a couple of guys that are banged up. Given them some extra time. For the rest of us, just kind of mentally get fresh. I think everyone's really excited.”
The Avalanche didn't spend much time Saturday going over a game plan for Vegas. Instead, it was more of a chance to skate around and squeeze in a few shots on net.
“A couple days before the game we’ll prepare and do some meetings,” forward Martin Necas said. “Until then, just all on us.”
The Avalanche and Golden Knights have some recent postseason history, with Vegas eliminating Colorado in the second round in 2021. The Knights fell behind 2-0 — and trailed in the third period of Game 3 — before reeling off four straight wins to take the series.
Vegas has a new coach in John Tortorella but several remaining players from the team that won the Stanley Cup title in 2023. They also have Mitch Marner, who has 18 points in the postseason (seven goals, 11 assists) after being acquired in a deal with Toronto last June that sent Nicolas Roy to the Maple Leafs. Roy, a member of Vegas' Stanley Cup team, is now with the Avalanche following a trade in March.
“It’s an experienced group. You’re not going to rattle them,” Bednar said about Vegas. “They’re very well-defined in their structure of their game. They’re a stingy defensive team, and they've got lots of firepower."
The Golden Knights have some ailments, too, most notably captain Mark Stone and defenseman Jeremy Lauzon.
“It’s a good team. I mean, we’re not looking past this team,” Bednar said. “These guys are healthy and firing on all cylinders ever since they made the coaching change.”
Vegas went went 7-0-1 to close out the regular season after Tortorella took over for Bruce Cassidy. They beat Utah in the first round and Anaheim in the second, both in six games.
Colorado relied on defense to dispatch of Los Angeles in a first-round sweep. Against Minnesota, 16 Avalanche players scored in the 4-1 series win.
Defense or offense, they're ready for any style.
“We want to dominate the game so they have to adjust to us,” said Necas, whose team had a week break after the first rounds. "It will be a good challenge.”
AP NHL: https://apnews.com/hub/nhl
Colorado Avalanche center Martin Necas (88) skates with the puck as Minnesota Wild defenseman Brock Faber (7) defends during the first period of Game 3 of an NHL Stanley Cup hockey second-round playoff series Saturday, May 9, 2026, in St. Paul, Minn. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr)
Colorado Avalanche head coach Jared Bednar, back right, confers with center Nathan MacKinnon, front right, and left wing Gabriel Landeskog in the third period of Game 2 of an NHL hockey Stanley Cup second-round playoff series against the Minnesota Wild Tuesday, May 5, 2026, in Denver. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)
MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — Thousands of people rallied Saturday in the cradle of the modern Civil Rights Movement to mobilize a new voting rights era as conservative states dismantle congressional districts that helped secure Black political representation.
U.S. Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey called Montgomery “sacred soil” in the fight for civil rights.
“If we in our generation do not now do our duty, we will lose the gains and the rights and the liberties that our ancestors afforded us,” Booker said.
The crowd was led in chants of “we won’t go back” and “we fight.”
“We are not going down without a fight. We are not going down to Jim Crow maps,” Shalela Dowdy, a plaintiff in the Alabama redistricting case said.
A crowd of thousands gathered in front of the city’s historic Alabama Capitol, the place where the Confederacy was formed in 1861 and where the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. spoke in 1965 at the end of the Selma-to-Montgomery Voting Rights March. The stage, set in front of the Capitol, was flanked from behind by statues of Confederate President Jefferson Davis and civil rights icon Rosa Parks — dueling tributes erected nearly 90 years apart.
Speakers said the spot was once the temple of the confederacy and became holy ground of the civil rights movement.
Some in the crowd said the effort to redraw lines has echoes of the past.
“We lived through the “60s. It takes you back. When you think that Alabama’s moving forward, it takes two steps back,” said Camellia A Hooks, 70, of Montgomery, Alabama.
The rally began in Selma, where a violent clash between law enforcement and voting rights activists in 1965 galvanized support for passage of the Voting Rights Act. It then moved to the state Capitol, where the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. gave his “How Long, Not Long” speech that same year.
A recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling involving Louisiana hollowed out voting rights law that was already weakened by a separate decision in 2013 and then narrowed further over the years. That helped clear the way for stricter voter ID laws, registration restrictions, and limits on early voting and polling place changes, including in states that once needed federal preclearance before they could change voting laws because of their historical discrimination against Black voters.
Veterans of the Civil Rights Movement are alarmed by the speed of the rollbacks, noting that protections won through generations of sacrifice have been weakened in little more than a decade.
Kirk Carrington, 75, was a teen in 1965 when law enforcement officers attacked marchers in Selma on what became known as “Bloody Sunday.” A white man on a horse wielding a stick chased Carrington through the streets.
“It’s really just appalling to me and all the young people that marched during the ’60s, fought hard to get voting rights, equal rights and civil rights,” Carrington said. “It’s sad that it’s continuing after 60-plus-odd years that we are still fighting for the same thing we fought for back then.”
Montgomery is home to one of the congressional districts that is being altered in the wake of the Supreme Court ruling.
A federal court in 2023 redrew Alabama's 2nd Congressional District after ruling that the state intentionally diluted the voting power of Black residents, who make up about 27% of its population. The court said there should be a district where Black people are a majority or near-majority and have an opportunity to elect their candidate of choice.
But the Supreme Court cleared the way for a different map that could let the GOP reclaim the seat. While the matter remains under litigation, the state plans special primaries Aug. 11 under the new map.
Democratic Rep. Shomari Figures, who won election in the district in 2024, said the dispute is not about him but rather people's opportunity to have representation.
“When Republicans are literally turning back the clock on what representation, what the faces of representation, look like, what the opportunities, legitimate opportunities for representation look like across this country, then I think it starts to resonate with people in a little bit of a different way,” Figures said.
Alabama House Speaker Nathaniel Ledbetter, a Republican, said the Louisiana ruling provided an opportunity to revisit a map that was forced on the state by the federal court.
“People tend to forget what happened. When this thing went to court, the Republican Party had that seat, congressional seat two,” Ledbetter said last week. “There’s been a push through the courts to try to overtake some of these red state seats, and that’s certainly what happened in that one.”
Evan Milligan, the lead plaintiff in the Alabama redistricting case, said there is grief over the implosion of the Voting Rights Act but it is crucial that people recommit to the fight.
“We have to accept that this is the new reality, whether we like it or not,” Milligan said. “We don’t have to accept that this will be the reality for the next 10 years or two years or forever.”
A man sings a spirtual song during a voting rally, Saturday, May 16, 2026, in Montgomery, Ala. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)
The State capitol is seen during a voting rally, Saturday, May 16, 2026, in Montgomery, Ala. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)
A protestor holds a sign of the late Georgia Congressman John Lewis during a voting rally, Saturday, May 16, 2026, in Montgomery, Ala. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)
A man sings a spirtual song during a voting rally, Saturday, May 16, 2026, in Montgomery, Ala. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)
A protestor holds a sign of the late Georgia Congressman John Lewis during a voting rally, Saturday, May 16, 2026, in Montgomery, Ala. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)
U.S. Sen Corey Booker, D-NY., has his photo taken during a voting rally, Saturday, May 16, 2026, in Montgomery, Ala. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)
People gather during a voting rally, Saturday, May 16, 2026, in Montgomery, Ala. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)
U.S. Sen Corey Booker, D-NY., has his photo taken during a voting rally, Saturday, May 16, 2026, in Montgomery, Ala. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)
Aaron McGuire sings a spirtual song during a voting rally, Saturday, May 16, 2026, in Montgomery, Ala. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)
