Back in Colorado from our trip to Las Vegas, but can't say the same for every dollar we took there. Wish we could have taken the weather back home since it has just now warmed up to a balmy 7 degrees Fahrenheit. Colder than ice, just like the Avalanche.
FYI: They are talking in Vegas as if it's just a matter of time before an NHL team winds up there. According to the
Las Vegas Review-Journal, the Maloof family -- former NBA Sacramento Kings owners -- is part of a group interested in bringing an NHL team to the $375 million, 20,000-seat arena being built on The Strip by MGM Resorts International and AEG. The arena is supposed to be ready in 2016. Walked by the site and it's basically dirt.
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As for the Avalanche, they're playing like dirt and coming off a 6-0 loss to the New York Islanders. They continue the four-game road trip tonight against the Rangers at Madison Square Garden.
Here are the
game notes.
Coach
Patrick Roy is changing lines again (the combinations are at the end of this blog).
Daniel Briere, a healthy scratch the past seven games, will return to the lineup and play right wing on a line with
Jamie McGinn and
Nathan MacKinnon.
"It's tough to put a finger on what has gone wrong," Briere told
NHL.com. "When part of our game is going, another part is not. And when that part gets going the other part isn't. But when you look around the room and see the potential and what this team accomplished last year, you know it can turn at any point. It's not just going to happen like that, though. We have to get back to basics, but we know the potential is there and that's a positive thing."
Briere will replace rookie
Dennis Everberg. Briere's presence certainly isn't going to be the catalyst for turning things around, but Roy doesn't exactly have a lot of options. There aren't any impact players with Lake Erie and it doesn't look like the Avalanche are looking to make any deals, at least not yet.
"I want to be patient with our guys," Roy told the
Denver Post. "It's a process. I know it's frustrating for everyone who would like to see the team winning, and right now it isn't happening. But we have to find a way out of that slump, and I don't think it's by bashing our players or screaming at our players that we're going to get out of it. This is a good group, a group that wants to win."
Semyon Varlamov will start in goal for the Avalanche,
Henrik Lundqvist for the Rangers.
Defenseman
Dan Boyle will be in the Rangers lineup for the first time since sustaining a broken hand in the season opener against St. Louis. Boyle signed a two-year, $9 million contract with the Rangers as a free agent July 1. Former Avalanche defenseman
Matt Hunwick has five assists in 13 games for New York.
Here's the Avalanche lineup for tonight:
FORWARDS
Ryan O'Reilly - Matt Duchene - Alex Tanguay
Gabriel Landeskog - John Mitchell - Jarome Iginla
Jamie McGinn - Nathan MacKinnon - Daniel Briere
Cody McLeod - Marc-Andre Cliche - Max Talbot
DEFENSEMEN
Jan Hejda - Erik Johnson
Nate Guenin - Tyson Barrie
Nick Holden - Zach Redmond
GOALIES
Semyon Varlamov
Reto Berra
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