The
Nathan MacKinnon experiment, if you want to call it that, is over. After playing parts of two games at right wing as a replacement for the injured
Alex Tanguay, MacKinnon will be back at center Friday night when the Avalanche plays Calgary at the Pepsi Center.
MacKinnon will skate on the third line with left wing
John Mitchell and right wing
Max Talbot.
Jamie McGinn will move to the second line with
Gabriel Landeskog and
Paul Stastny.
"It was good to give it a try, but I think he's more comfortable ... he needs that space to skate," Avalanche coach
Patrick Roy said after practice Thursday. "He's so fast. I think it makes us a better team when he's at the center position. I thought he did well overall, but it's better for him to have more space to skate."
MacKinnon played a season-high 20:18 in Wednesday night's 6-4 loss to Nashville while skating with Landeskog and Stastny. He had a plus-1 plus/minus rating but didn't have a shot on goal for the first time this season.
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Center
Matt Duchene didn't practice Thursday because of a bruised foot he sustained when blocking a shot Wednesday. He seemed fine after the game and certainly looked good during it with a spectacular goal and two assists.
"Hopefully everything's going to be fine (Friday)," Roy said.
Duchene has moved into 10th place on the NHL scoring list with 17 points (10 goals and seven assists) in 14 games. He's tied with Minnesota's
Jason Pominville for fourth place for goals. Pominville has played two more games.
Defenseman
Ryan Wilson isn't expected to play Friday after hurting his back in the first period Wednesday. He didn't return and was to visit with team physician
Dr. Andrew Parker on Thursday.
Nick Holden is expected to take his place in the lineup.
I would be very surprised if he (played)," Roy said of Wilson.
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Roy expects a bounce-back game from the Avalanche against the Flames, who played in St. Louis on Thursday night. He said players "didn't have the same urgency" against Nashville that they showed in previous games and had too many defensive breakdowns.
"You always want to bounce back," Roy said. "Because of where we finished last year, it's probably a question mark for a lot of people. I think it is important for us to stay in the present world, take it one day at a time, and that's what we're going to do.
"At the end of the day it would have been nice to get away with a win without playing our best and with not having that urgency. At the same time, we need to learn from it. I think it's a good lesson for us. I think it's very positive, in my opinion. I liked the way we practiced today. The guys were better focused and practiced with a purpose and we applied our details a lot better than we have in the last few practices. I think this is a good sign."
Defenseman
Erik Johnson said the Avalanche doesn't want to get into the habit of losing games in succession. The team opened the season with six wins, lost to Detroit on Oct. 17 and won six more before Wednesday's defeat.
"It was probably our first game as a team where we had a clunker defensively," he said. "We gave up too many Grade A scoring chances. When you do that it makes it tough on your goaltender. We were a little careless with the puck and we just have to manage our game a little bit better."
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Johnson was surprised when he was assessed a 10-minute misconduct to begin the third period. His stick broke at the end of the second period and it hopped over the glass into the stands when he tossed it against the boards.
The rule is in place for safety reasons.
"I just threw it at the boards and somehow it went over the glass," Johnson said. "(The referee) said you have to get a 10-minute penalty for that. He said, 'I know you didn't try to do it,' but inadvertently it went over the glass. Just kind of bad luck. It was a freak accident, but it's black-and-white in the rule book. It was just a crappy bounce for me and the team. I had no idea the stick went over the glass until I came back for the third period."
Losing Johnson was even more costly because Wilson missed the second and third periods with his back injury, leaving the Avalanche with four defensemen for 10 minutes.
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Defenseman
Cory Sarich will be playing against his former teammates for the first time since the Avalanche acquired him and Tanguay from the Flames on June 27 in exchange for
David Jones and
Shane O'Brien.
"I've done it once or twice before (playing against a former team), whether it was signing somewhere else or being traded," Sarich said. "It's always a little different. You play against guys you've battled with for a few years, so it has a little bit of a weird feeling to it. But we need a win, so it won't be too hard to get up and get going for that game.
"No one wants to lose two in a row. You'll have losses along the way, but if you don't let this mount, that's the sign of a good team. It's being able to learn from last night. We addressed the things that need to be improved upon and now it's going out and executing. It's a huge game for us."
Jean-Sebastien Giguere will start in goal.
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