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O'Reilly, Tanguay in non-contact drills; Roy's latest quip for Roenick |
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Rick Sadowski
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Two of the Avalanche's walking wounded, Ryan O'Reilly and Alex Tanguay, did some skating Thursday and took part in some non-contact drills at practice.
Coach Patrick Roy said O'Reilly, who hurt his left shoulder celebrating a Paul Stastny goal Monday against Calgary, is day to day. He said a decision will be made Friday whether O'Reilly makes the two-game trip to Minnesota and Chicago.
Asked if O'Reilly would play Friday night against the New York Islanders, Roy said: "I'll be surprised, but you never know."
Roy said Tanguay is "pacing" himself and his progress -- or lack of it -- next week will go a long way in determining if he will be able to play at some point this season. Tanguay has been sidelined since sustaining knee and hip injuries Nov. 2 against Montreal.
"I'd say he's probably going 60-70 percent," Roy said. "Next week we want to see some strength in his knee and his hip. Until then, we're not sure. But next week he's going to push hard and then we'll have a better indication if he's capable or not of coming back. The knee and the hip are getting better, but he's not 100 percent, that's for sure."
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Roy got off another good-natured quip when he was reminded that Jeremy Roenick was in town to do a feature on Matt Duchene for NBC.
Back in 1996, when the Avalanche was playing the Chicago Blackhawks in the playoffs, the pair did some memorable smack talking:
Roy was asked Thursday if he had anything to say to Roenick now that he has four Stanley Cup rings, the two he won with Colorado after that series.
"I put two in my mouth, so I couldn't talk to him,” Roy said. He laughed, and we did, too.
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Semyon Varlamov, who is 7-0-4 in his past 11 decisions, will start in goal Friday against the Islanders at the Pepsi Center and Saturday in Minnesota. The Avalanche has gone 4-1-1 in the first six games of the seven-game homestand.
The Avalanche sits third in the Central Division, seven points ahead of the Wild, which plays Thursday at Phoenix, and 11 in front of Dallas, which plays Thursday at New Jersey.
"We just want to stay as much as possible where we are," Roy said. "I'm not saying we're comfortable, but we're looking at our division and Chicago and St. Louis are ahead of everybody. They're clearly the top teams in our division, but we're in a really good battle with Minny and Dallas. I'd certainly love to stay ahead of these guys. We have to be good every night."
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Roy gave captain Gabriel Landeskog quite a compliment when he compared his leadership style to that of Joe Sakic, who spoke up when needed but showed the way more by example.
"Joe was a bit like this, too, as a captain," Roy said. "But what I like is when these guys take over on the ice, this is exactly the type of leadership we needed last night (in the 4-3 overtime win against Ottawa)."
Landeskog, who had three assists, powered his way to the net to force Senators goalie Craig Anderson to make a big save and assistant captain Paul Stastny knocked in the rebound with 2:20 left to tie the game. Stastny set up Tyson Barrie's winning goal 33 seconds into overtime.
"I honestly think that Paul and Landy are clicking well together and they played really well in that important moment in the game," Roy said. "They had a good start to the game and they finished really strong and took charge."
Landeskog has three goals and eight assists in a career-best eight-game point-scoring streak. Stastny, who had a goal and two assists, has two goals and six assists in a three-game streak.
"For some reason, even though we weren't playing great, I felt like it was just a matter of time before we tied it up," Landeskog said. "We got a lot of Grade A scoring chances in the last five minutes, but I had a good feeling the whole game. I think we've done a good job of getting some momentum on this homestand and we absolutely want to keep it going."
As for his leadership style:
"For me, sometimes you don't have to be the cheerleader or the guy chatting it up in the dressing room and pumping the guys up. There's a time and a place to say things, and I'll say it. But I'm trying to channel my energy and put it all on the ice instead of sitting and screaming in the dressing room. I have to focus on what I have to do on the ice and it's something that's helped me this year. Just focus on my game and it helps to get my line going and our team to get momentum as well."
Landeskog said that he and his teammates are relishing this push to make the playoffs, that young players like himself, Duchene, O'Reilly, Stastny and Barrie have been maturing together since arriving on the scene.
"My first year, if we were going to struggle together, we wanted to get something positive out of it," he said. "Me and Paulie played together quite a bit this year, Ryan and Dutchie, Tyson ...we've taken a lot of big steps, so we're growing together and when it comes to crunch time we all know we have each other and that's something that's going to be important for us. We still have a lot of hockey left, but I think we're definitely going in the right direction."
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