The Avalanche will be without defenseman
Samuel Girard again Wednesday when they look to even their first-round playoff series with Nashville in Game 4 at the Pepsi Center.
The Predators lead 2-1 in the best-of-seven series.
The
GAME NOTES.
Girard took part in the morning skate while wearing a non-contact jersey, but he’ll miss his third game in a row because of an upper-body injury.
That means role players like
Duncan Siemens and
David Warsofsky will stay in the lineup, though both have been playing about 10 minutes; Girard played 22 minutes in Game 1.
“There are two very good puck-moving defensemen that we’re missing,”
Nathan MacKinnon said, referring to Girard and
Erik Johnson, who has a knee injury. “I thought in Game 1 ‘G’ was our best defenseman breaking the puck out of our zone. He was very dynamic. It’s a big loss, but even if we had both those guys (the forwards) still need to come back and help.”
As for Predators defenseman
P.K. Subban’s gloved hand punch to the back of MacKinnon’s head in Game 3, MacKinnon and coach
Jared Bednar think the whole thing has been overblown.
“It’s playoffs and naturally you want to hit and be physical,” MacKinnon said. “The emotion of the game, guys are going to be physical. They have a big team, very fast team, strong, and we expect it to be physical. It’s the playoffs, so you can’t expect anything less than that.”
Bednar said it's all part of playoff hockey.
“I think that happens many times a night in different scenarios,” Bednar said. “To me, I looked at that play and I said, ‘Maybe if he catches him and the ref sees it, he’s looking at it, that he can get called for roughing. Maybe, OK?.’ I think it’s happening all over the league, that’s the competitiveness of it. Our guys have to play through it and their guys have to play through it.
“I don’t think the ticky-tack stuff is what should be called in a playoff series. We battled through 82 games to get here, I think you have to continue to battle through a lot of that. I think some of them could be called and some of them shouldn’t.
“The penalties you want to see called … when you break a team down, when you force them into a mistake when you get in the scoring area and someone gets on your hands and takes that away or trips you or roughs you or cross-checks and takes the scoring chance away, then I want it called.
“Same thing going the other way. I think our guys do the same thing Subban did there. To me, it’s not a big deal. It’s just something you play through at this time of year.”
*****
Warsofsky is “excited” about the opportunity to play in his third Stanley Cup playoff game and said he doesn’t feel any extra pressure to help make up for Girard’s absence.
“You just want to play your game and contribute as much as you can,” he said. “We’re without Girard and EJ’s been out for an extended period of time now, so everyone has to pick up the slack a little bit. Everyone has to elevate their game just a little bit more.”
Warsofsky has been getting time on the power play, which has gone 1-for-13 in the series, 1-for-10 without Girard.
“You can be moving it around great and get some momentum and you don’t score, and there are times when you get a lucky goal here or there,” he said. “You just got to stick with it. I think we’re doing a lot of good things out there. Hopefully we get a bounce or two.”
The Avalanche lineup:
Gabriel Landeskog -- Nathan MacKinnon -- Mikko Rantanen
Tyson Jost -- Alexander Kerfoot -- Sven Andrighetto
Matt Nieto -- Carl Soderberg -- Blake Comeau
Colin Wilson -- J.T. Compher -- Gabriel Bourque
Nikita Zadorov -- Tyson Barrie
Patrik Nemeth – Mark Barberio
Duncan Siemens -- David Warsofsky
Jonathan Bernier
Andrew Hammond
Colorado Avalanche Blogger •Avalanche Insider • 
Join the Discussion:
»