Avalanche coach
Patrick Roy is shaking up the lines for Saturday's game in Buffalo in an attempt to get the offense untracked.
John Mitchell and
Patrick Bordeleau will play.
Dennis Everberg and
Nick Holden will be the scratches.
First, here are the
game notes.
This is how the lines will look:
Max Talbot - Matt Duchene - Nathan MacKinnon
Gabriel Landeskog - Ryan O'Reilly - Daniel Briere
Alex Tanguay - John Mitchell - Jarome Iginla
Cody McLeod - Marc-Andre Cliche - Patrick Bordeleau
Mitchell has missed seven consecutive games and 10 of the past 11 with a hip flexor injury. Bordeleau will make his season debut after recovering from back surgery.
Calvin Pickard will start in goal again after making 47 saves -- a franchise record for a rookie -- Thursday in the Avalanche's 1-0 overtime loss in Pittsburgh. He has a 4-3-2 record in his past nine games with a 1.97 goals-against average and .943 save percentage. He's 4-5-2 overall despite a 2.27 average that is the 10th-best figure in the NHL and a .934 save percentage that ranks him third.
If only the Avalanche would start scoring. They've been shut out twice in the past four games, five times overall, have been held to two goals or fewer in 17 of 31 games this season and are a dreadful 5-of-58 on power plays in the past 19 games.
No wonder they're 7-6-8 in one-goal games this year. The Sabres, by the way, are 11-4-2 in one-goal games. They're not a pushover, either, posting a 10-4-0 record after starting the season 3-13-2.
As for the Avalanche's offensive woes:
Tyson Barrie has no goals and one assist in the past six games; Briere has no points in six games; Duchene has one goal and one assist in five games; Iginla has one goal in four games; Landeskog has no goals and five assists in seven games; MacKinnon has one assist in seven games and has gone 13 games without a goal; O'Reilly has one goal and two assists in six games; and Tanguay has no goals and two assists in five games.
*****
In case you missed it, here's my
Calvin Pickard feature on NHL.com from Thursday. It ran long and needed to be edited, so here are a few items that didn't make the final cut:
A fan favorite, Pickard is a friendly sort with the gift of gab. Unlike most goalies, he'll talk just about any time, including after a morning skate when he's scheduled to play that night.
"I've been told before that I'm one of the more normal goalies that people have met," he said. "I just try to fit in like the rest of the group and go with the flow. It's nice to talk to everybody. When it's close to game time I definitely get in the zone and get prepared. I've seen some goalies around who have been a little bit different. I don't want to separate myself from the team, I want to be a team guy and just act like (any) player."
Pickard played four years with the Seattle Thunderbirds of the Western Hockey League and set league career records for minutes (14,025) and saves (7,727). In 2010-11, he made 40 or more saves in 21 games and 50-plus saves six times. The Thunderbirds never made the playoffs during his time with them and his career record was 91-120-27, but Avalanche scouts were impressed with his stamina and ability to endure trying times.
"I was 16 and usually 16-year-old goalies don't play much and I was the starting goalie right off the bat," he said. "I ended up playing a lot of games there in four years, and those are good development years. I was in the net almost every night and facing a ton of shots. We weren't a very good team, but it was a good experience for me facing all those shots. I needed to play well in order for our team to win, so I needed to be sharp every single night."
Pickard has been working on his game with two goalie coaches -- Francois Allaire in Colorado and Jean-Ian Filiatrault in Cleveland. He said Filiatrault "works hand in hand with Francois. They teach the exact same system."
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