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Duchene shows off gold, is excited for NHL return |
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Rick Sadowski
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Less than 24 hours after arriving from Russia, gold medal-winning Matt Duchene chose to take part in an optional practice Tuesday with the Avalanche and showed off the prize he earned while playing for Team Canada in the Sochi Olympics.
"The guys asked me if I brought it with me and I obviously said yes and if they wanted to see it I showed them, but as far as I'm concerned today all of us are enjoying our Olympic success and talking to our teammates about it," he said.
"(Wednesday) it's back to work, back to business here with Colorado. This experience I'm definitely going to bring forward with me, but it's not going to be something I'm satisfied with. It's something that's going to make me push even harder."
Avalanche captain Gabriel Landeskog, who won a silver medal with Sweden, and Paul Stastny, whose USA team lost to Finland in the bronze medal game, also were at the Avalanche practice facility but didn't skate. They'll be on the Pepsi Center ice Wednesday morning to prepare for that night's game against Los Angeles.
All four Avalanche Olympians will suit up for the game against the Kings, but goalie Semyon Varlamov will be the backup for Jean-Sebastien Giguere. Varlamov will start Friday against Phoenix.
"Jiggy played really well the last two games he played on the road and I think he deserves to play," coach Patrick Roy said. "It will give Varly an extra couple days to rest and work in practice."
Duchene was still trying to get used to the Mountain time zone and mile-high altitude after arriving in Denver at noon on Monday. It's why he decided to take part in practice.
"I fell asleep at 3:30 (Monday) and slept until 10:30," he said. "The only reason I woke up is because my phone rang. I stayed up for two hours and slept for another six. Thirteen hours of sleep and I still feel exhausted. I'll use the rest of today to rest and I should be good for the game. There's a lot of jet lag and I felt best if I got right back at it and sweated it out.
"My mentality right now is it's back to work with this team. I was so excited to see my teammates again. I love this group so much in here. They're all like family and it was great to get back on the ice with them. I wanted to adjust to the small ice again and get a feel for everything. I don't want to live in the past, I want to come back and be ready to play (Wednesday) night."
Duchene called the Olympic experience "a dream come true," saying the Russians did an excellent job.
"We heard horror stories before we went over, but everything was done really well," he said. "The facilities were beautiful and the weather was amazing. It felt more like the Summer Olympics than the Winter Olympics. Offensively it was really hard to create anything on the big ice. We realized we weren't going to score like we probably would on the North American ice and we had one of the best defensive performances of all time."
And what was it like to stand on the podium and listen to Oh Canada after being presented with his gold medal following a 3-0 win against Sweden?
"Best moment of my career so far," Duchene said. "That along with being drafted by the Avs for sure are my top two. I think the biggest thing I've taken away from that is being around all those winners, those Stanley Cup champions, I grew up another two years and matured more as a player. I think I can bring that experience and really bring that to the table in Colorado. That's what I'm most excited about. It makes me even more hungry to win a Stanley Cup now.
"The last two games I played there (against the U.S. and Sweden), it's like two Game 7s, probably the highest level of hockey you can possibly play. That experience and that confidence I'm going to bring forward. It's going to be amazing and hopefully it's going to help our team."
Duchene said it "was tough" shaking hands with Landeskog during the lineup after Canada defeated Sweden.
"We knew going in one of us was going to be upset and one of us was going to be on top of the world," Duchene said. "Obviously I was happy it was me that was on top of the world. It's tough being on that end of it. You never want to rub it in a teammate's face. A silver medal, maybe it stings a little bit, but he's going to look at that thing six months from now and go, 'Wow, I won a silver medal at the Olympics.' They were depleted a little bit and we had a great team."
Landeskog, who showed off his silver medal, called the Olympic experience "certainly a memory for a lifetime. It was fun. We didn't know what to expect."
As for the loss to Canada: "Unfortunately they were just a little too strong for us," he said. " They just have such a deep team, such a good team and their D-corps, it was hard to get anything going."
Duchene said he "felt bad" for Stastny, who will be available to reporters Wednesday morning. Canada defeated the Americans 1-0 in the semifinals, and the U.S lost to Finland 5-0 in the bronze medal game.
"As a Canadian it's pretty sweet to beat the U.S., I can't lie," he said. "I wish Paulie could have been on my side for that one. I wanted him to win bronze for sure."
Asked how Olympic gold would stack up against a Stanley Cup, Duchene didn't hesitate.
"Stanley Cup is No. 1, gold medal is No. 2," he said. "It's nice to cross No. 2 off my list, now it's time to get No. 1."
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