As expected,
Reto Berra will start in goal for the Avalanche against the Florida Panthers on Tuesday night at the Pepsi Center. Recovered from a neck injury, he felt fine during the morning skate and will face a Panthers team that, like the Avalanche, has struggled to score goals.
The Panthers have five goals in five games, the Avalanche nine goals in six games.
The Avalanche, who have played one home game during their 1-4-1 start, will play seven of the next nine games at home.
"It'll be good to get back on the winning side at home here," said
Matt Duchene, who has two goals, tying him with
Alex Tanguay for the team lead. "It's still early, but we have to bear down here and make sure we get on the right track, just finding goals at the right time. Offense for us is a contagious thing and we've only had one game where we scored three goals and we got them all in one period (the first period in last Thursday's 5-3 loss in Ottawa).
"Once we start scoring like we can, and consistently, our team defense will keep getting better and more comfortable with the puck and more confident and those mistakes will go away too. As much as we probably haven't played the way we wanted to, it's pretty bad luck that we only have one win."
The Avalanche have been outscored 10-2 in the second period and 5-2 in the third. They're 1-for-22 on power plays and are allowing an average of 35.7 shots per game (the Panthers allow 26.6).
The Avalanche will be facing goalie
Roberto Luongo, who has stopped 48 of 49 shots in his past two starts and has gone 12-0-2 against Colorado in his past 14 decisions.
"He's a great goalie, but I think (the streak) was when he was with Vancouver, and Vancouver's always had our number," Duchene said. "That's what we like to think anyway. We're going to have to put a lot of shots on him, get rebounds, get traffic and make good shots to beat him. That's the story with a lot of goalies in the league but especially him. He's played some big games for Florida already."
*****
Center
Jesse Winchester skated in drills for the second day in a row Tuesday while wearing a red non-contact jersey as he recovers from the concussion he sustained in a Sept. 30 preseason game at Calgary. Coach
Patrick Roy said he's still about a week away from being activated from injured reserve.
"He still has some symptoms," Roy said. "He's back to baseline, but in the afternoon he has headaches."
The Avalanche expect to activate goalie
Semyon Varlamov from IR Wednesday, the first day he is eligible. Roy said the team will get the day off, but Varlamov will do some on-ice work with goalie coach
Francois Allaire to make sure he's over his groin injury. Roy sounded like there won't be a recall from Lake Erie when rookie goalies
Calvin Pickard and
Sami Aittokallio are sent back to the AHL team, leaving the roster at 22 players, one under the maximum.
Also, asked why longtime chief amateur scout
Rick Pracey was let go, Roy said it was an "organization decision." That was it.
Here's an
interesting take on Pracey's firing. I think it has a lot merit.
*****
Here's the Avalanche lineup.
Ryan Wilson will return on defense.
Nate Guenin and
Zach Redmond (again) will be scratched.
FORWARDS
Alex Tanguay - Matt Duchene - Jarome Iginla
Gabriel Landeskog - Ryan O'Reilly - Nathan MacKinnon
Jamie McGinn - John Mitchell - Daniel Briere
Cody McLeod - Marc-Andre Cliche - Max Talbot
DEFENSEMEN
Nick Holden - Erik Johnson
Jan Hejda - Tyson Barrie
Brad Stuart - Ryan Wilson
GOALIES
Reto Berra
Calvin Pickard
Colorado Avalanche Blogger •Avalanche Insider • 
Join the Discussion:
»