Alex Tanguay said he's healthy again and looked the part Friday when the Avalanche held their first official scrimmages and practice sessions at the Family Sports Center in Centennial, Colo.
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Avalanche training camp roster.
"I felt good, I've been working hard. It's obviously been a long road," said Tanguay, who was limited to 16 games last year because of knee and hip injuries and underwent season-ending hip surgery in February. "It was a very frustrating year for me last year, but I feel great. I felt great last year at the start of the year and unfortunately this happened, but I'm feeling good now and doing everything possible to get my body as healthy as possible and to hopefully play all 82 (games) this year."
Tanguay, who turns 35 in November, hasn't done that since 2002-03, his fourth season in the NHL. Injuries have limited him to 16, 40 and 64 games the past three seasons, but he's hopeful this latest surgery will enable him to reach his goal.
Tanguay got off to a hot start last year with three assists on opening night in the Avalanche's 6-1 win against Anaheim. He had two goals in Colorado's fifth game, a 5-1 win at Washington, and he had a three-game point-scoring streak heading into a Nov. 2 game against Montreal when he was injured.
Tanguay didn't play again until Jan. 24 when he collected an assist in a 3-2 win at Florida. He was held out by coach
Patrick Roy the next night in Tampa and picked up the winning goal in a 4-3 victory in Dallas to close out a three-game road trip. But his season ended after he logged 18:31 in ice time Jan. 30 in a 5-4 home win against Minnesota.
He finished with four goals, seven assists and a plus-7 plus/minus rating. Remarkably, the Avalanche went 15-1-0 in the 16 games he played.
Now, Tanguay appears to be in good health and when the season starts will play right wing on a line with captain
Gabriel Landeskog and Calder Trophy winner
Nathan MacKinnon, who will move from the right side where he played most of last year to his natural center position, replacing
Paul Stastny, who left as a free agent to sign with St. Louis.
"Guess I'm the missing part replacing Staz," said Tanguay, who skated with Stastny and Landeskog a year ago. "I think I can do the job. Nate looks great. We've been skating together the last week or so."
Tanguay looked fine Friday while skating in a scrimmage on a line with Landeskog and rookie
Joey Hishon.
"He played really well," Roy said of Tanguay. "I thought he was skating really well. Last year (he and Landeskog) really clicked well together when Paulie was in the middle. It's going to be fun seeing Nate going with these guys."
Roy said the trio would be together Sunday in the annual Burgundy and White Game, when
Matt Duchene will center a line with
Ryan O'Reilly and
Jarome Iginla. But Friday's scrimmage lineups will be used again Saturday as Roy and his staff give some of the organization's prospects a chance to show what they can do while skating alongside the regulars.
"I was very happy," Roy said. "The guys were very receptive, they work hard. We were working on different aspects of the game, our D-zone coverage, the angles we want to see our guys using in our D-zone. We also wanted to play fast and I think this is part of our identity. We want to be a fast team, but not just fast skating-wise. (We want to make) quick decisions with the puck and being able to react well with it."
Tanguay said he resumed skating Sept. 1 following a long, arduous rehab program and is looking forward to playing in some preseason games. He expects to be in the lineup Monday night at the Pepsi Center when the Avalanche faces Anaheim.
"I'm cleared to play as far as I'm concerned," he said. "I'm 100 percent. It will still take a little bit of time to get my leg back to where it needs to be, but that's part of the process when you have surgery."
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MacKinnon, who looks just as fast as he was as a rookie after adding some muscle this summer, skated with Iginla and
Andrew Agozzino, who had 17 goals in 75 games with Lake Erie in the AHL last year.
"I don't know if it's me, but he looks stronger," Roy said. "He seems strong on the puck. Every time down low he's spinning and stuff like that. It makes it really tough to defend against. He's protecting that puck really well. He looks stronger on the ice."
MacKinnon said he does feel stronger, but he added: "There's no real decent coverage or neutral-zone forecheck like in the season, but it's a scrimmage and definitely very intense. It feels good to be playing center. I worked on my draws this summer and we'll see how it goes. It's my natural position and I'm very comfortable playing it."
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The Avalanche staff directory now lists
Joe Sakic as executive vice president
and general manager, with
Greg Sherman as assistant GM along with
Craig Billington ... Forwards
John Mitchell (migraines) and
Jamie McGinn (back) didn't take part in the on-ice sessions. "It's a day-to-day situation with these two guys," Roy said ... Roy said Thursday that center
Max Talbot was recovering from an injury (undisclosed), but he played Friday on a line with
Daniel Briere and
Dennis Everberg.
Defenseman
Jan Hejda, who had offseason hand and shoulder surgery, was paired with
Cody Corbett ...
Erik Johnson was paired with
Duncan Siemens, the Avalanche's second first-round pick (11th overall) in 2011 ...
Brad Stuart, acquired from San Jose, was paired with
Stefan Elliott ... Goalie
Semyon Varlamov stopped all three shots he faced in a shootout as the Blue team defeated the Burgundy team 4-3.
Ryan O'Reilly scored the only shootout goal, which came against
Reto Berra ... The Black team defeated the Grey 4-1 in the second scrimmage.
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